MOSCOW, July 15. /ITAR-TASS/. The terrorist attack is not considered as a possible cause of train crash in the Moscow metro, Russia's Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov said.

No blast went off in Moscow metro, a source in Moscow law enforcement agencies told ITAR-TASS on Tuesday.

“The information about an explosion allegedly taking place in the metro in a tunnel between metro stations Slavyansky Bulvar and Park Pobedy is groundless. This accident occurred as a result of human error,” the source said.

Full elimination of aftermath of the Moscow metro train crash will take 24 hours, Deputy Mayor Pyotr Biryukov said on Tuesday.

“24 hours are needed to eliminate fully aftermath of this man-made incident,” he said at a meeting of the governmental emergency situation committee.

A criminal case was opened for violation of transport security requirements, spokesman of Russian Investigative Committee Vladimir Markin said earlier in the day.

“Required expertises seeking to find causes for metro car derailment are about to be announced. Investigative Committee’s detectives keep working at the incident site,” he added.

Detectives believe that “three metro cars derailed due to violation of security requirements at metro facilities” at about 8.35am Moscow time (5.35am BST) on Tuesday in a tunnel between metro stations Park Pobedy and Slavyansky Bulvar on Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya blue metro line, Markin said.

“Reports about injured people are being specified. Major material damages were also caused to Moscow metro,” the committee’s spokesman said.

 

12 people died, more than 140 injured

The death toll in the metro crash reached 12 people, Puchkov said. A driver of a crashed metro train died, an informed source in Moscow metro told ITAR-TASS on Tuesday.

Five people were found dead in Moscow metro train cars damaged in the accident, but their bodies have nor been recovered yet, a source in regional law enforcement agencies told ITAR-TASS.

One hundred-and-six people have been hospitalized, while 50 of them are in a serious condition. As many as 149 people sought medical aid, Deputy Mayor Pyotr Biryukov said. 

“At the moment,out of 120 people injured in the Moscow metro train incident, 106 were taken to hospitals with different injuries. Around one hundred ambulances are working at the incident site, four emergency helicopters are airlifting the injured people to hospitals. The injured were taken to 14 Moscow hospitals, including city hospitals number 67 and 71 and Sklifosovsky First Aid Clinic,” the press service of the Health Ministry reported.

Several people were stuck for about an hour in an underground tunnel between metro stations Park Pobedy and Slavyansky Bulvar, as a metro train car filled with passengers derailed on Moscow’s Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya blue metro line on Tuesday, eyewitnesses told ITAR-TASS.

 

What happened

First reports about the accident appeared around 9am on Tuesday. According to the Russian Emergencies Ministry (EMERCOM), the train going from the city center stopped abruptly between the Park Pobedy and Slavyansky Bulvar stations after a power surge. Three metro train cars derailed as a result of the incident. Metro train traffic has been halted on  the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya blue metro line, and its power supply is cut off.

According to preliminary reports, a sudden braking of the metro train caused the incident.