Nishapur train disaster
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The Neishapur train disaster was a large explosion in the village of Khayyam near
Nishapur Nishapur or officially Romanized as Neyshabur ( fa, ;Or also "نیشاپور" which is closer to its original and historic meaning though it is less commonly used by modern native Persian speakers. In Persian poetry, the name of this city is wr ...
in
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, on 18 February 2004. Nearly 300 people were killed and the entire village was destroyed when runaway train wagons crashed into the community in the middle of the night and exploded, resulting in Iran's deadliest
rail disaster Classification of railway accidents, both in terms of cause and effect, is a valuable aid in studying rail (and other) accidents to help to prevent similar ones occurring in the future. Systematic investigation for over 150 years has led to the r ...
. It is still unexplained how the parked train had come loose and was able to travel such a long distance with no driver or guard.


Beginning of incident

The incident began in the city of Nishapur, where 51 railway wagons carrying sulfur, fertilizer, petrol and cotton wool broke loose from their siding at Abu Muslim Station, and rolled down the track for about twenty kilometers until they derailed and rolled down an embankment into the town of Khayyam. There was nobody staffing the wagons, or onboard at the time of the crash. Local rescue services from neighboring towns arrived to rescue anybody who might have been trapped inside, and to extinguish minor fires which had broken out in the wreckage.


Chemical leak

The substances in the wagons were all highly explosive or flammable (although the Iranian railway authority had not classed any of them as "dangerous" before the incident), and had leaked following the crash. As the small fires spread, a large crowd of local people, including several local politicians and senior railway officials, gathered to watch the emergency operation.


Explosion

During the cleanup operation, the cargo of the wagons exploded - reportedly at the equivalent of 180 tons of
TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...
- demolishing Khayyam, badly damaging the nearby towns of Eyshabad, Dehnow and Taqiabad, and being felt in the city of
Mashhad Mashhad ( fa, مشهد, Mašhad ), also spelled Mashad, is the List of Iranian cities by population, second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the relatively remote north-east of the country about from Tehran. It serves as the capital of R ...
, 70 kilometers away. The entire village was destroyed, and all of the local emergency services and government personnel were killed or seriously injured in the blast. The wreckage of the train and village continued to burn and explode for several days, despite the cold weather.


Death toll

State authorities identified 295 confirmed killed and over 460 injured, including 182 rescue workers and state officials.


Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

Following the blast, troops from the
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC; fa, سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی, Sepāh-e Pāsdārān-e Enghelāb-e Eslāmi, lit=Army of Guardians of the Islamic Revolution also Sepāh or Pasdaran for short) is a branch o ...
were called in and were able to maintain security, whilst hundreds of rescue workers were brought in to help with the injured, the trapped, the missing and the dead. Five villages were described as "destroyed".


Cause

Initial reports that "earth tremors" started the wagons rolling have since been discredited, and investigation has so far failed to discover how exactly the wagons were able to travel from Nishapur to Khayyam on their own, why so many highly flammable cargoes were stored and transported together, and why the details of the crash weren't discovered sooner, perhaps in time to arrange an evacuation. A statement from the Iranian Transport Minister
Ahmad Khorram Ahmad Khorram ( fa, احمد خرم, born 1950) is an Iranian politician. Khorram was the Minister of Roads and Transportation under President Mohammad Khatami, until October 3, 2004, when he was impeached by the Majlis of Iran by 188 votes out ...
shortly after the incident reported that natural causes could not have caused the disaster, and that an investigation was underway to determine whether it was incompetence or malice by railway staff that allowed the wagons to come loose from where they were parked.


See also

* Lac-Mégantic derailment - a 2013 derailment of fuel train and subsequent fire and explosions in the core of a Canadian town, also caused by railcars parked on an incline becoming loose. *
Viareggio train derailment The Viareggio derailment was the derailment of a freight train and subsequent fire which occurred on 29 June 2009 in a railway station in Viareggio, Lucca, a city in Central Italy's Tuscany region. Thirty-two people were killed and a furthe ...
- a 2009 derailment of a fuel train in Viareggio, central Italy that caused explosions and fire which killed 32 people. *
Soham rail disaster The Soham rail disaster occurred on 2 June 1944, during the Second World War, when a fire developed on the leading wagon of a heavy ammunition train. The wagon contained a quantity of high explosive bombs. The train crew had detached the wa ...
- a 1944 fire and subsequent explosion of an ammunition train near Soham, England.


References


External links


BBC Report on AftermathMSNBC News Report

People responsible for Nishapur train disaster announced by court
{{2004 railway accidents 2004 disasters in Iran Explosions in 2004 Railway accidents in 2004 Derailments in Iran 2004 in Iran Explosions in Iran Train disaster Accidental deaths in Iran History of Nishapur Runaway train disasters February 2004 events in Asia Train and rapid transit fires