Sixty killed, 80 injured in Congo train disaster

Sixty people died and 80 were seriously injured in a train disaster in the south of Congo-Brazzaville, an official said yesterday, as overloading emerged as the suspected cause.

A further 200 people were also injured but less seriously, said a city administrative official in Pointe Noire the southern city to which many of the bodies had been taken.

The accident happened in the early hours of yesterday about 60 kilometres from Pointe Noire, said Joseph Sauveur El Bez, managing director of the Chemin de fer Congo-ocean (CFCO) company.

Relatives of the dead and injured filled the railway stations at Pointe Noire and Dolisie anxious for news of their loved ones, witnesses in the cities said.

Few details were available of the accident, however, from the rail company or the government. Survivor said carriages derailed when the train took a bend at speed.

"There was a grave train accident during the night," Mr El Bez told AFP. "There are dozens of victims and injured," adding that everything possible was being done to help the victims.

The bodies of the dead and the injured had been taken to morgues and hospitals in Pointe Noir.

A large amount of damage had also been caused by the accident, he said, without elaborating.

A television journalist working for the local Pointe Noire station DRTV (Digital Radio TV) said he saw many wounded arrive at the city's two main hospitals.

The cause was not yet known but a source close to the rescue operation told AFP "the train could have been overloaded with passengers and goods."

The 510-kilometre CFCO line is the main link between the capital Brazzaville and Pointe Noire on the Atlantic, mainly following the Congo River.

It was built between 1921 and 1934 during French colonial rule and thousands of Africans are said to have died making the railway.

In September 1991, a collision on the same line left 100 dead and 300 wounded in the country's worst ever rail disaster.