Turkish train derails, killing 36 people
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-07-23 08:49

A packed express train traveling from Istanbul to Ankara derailed Thursday, killing around 36 people in one of Turkey's worst ever rail disasters.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan revised an earlier death toll of 139 given by a crisis center and a health ministry official.

A derailed Turkish express train near Pamukova near the western Turkish city of Sakarya late July 22, 2004. [Reuters]

"The information we have received from hospitals is that around 36 people were killed and 68 of our citizens were injured," Erdogan was quoted as saying by the state-run Anatolian news agency.

Officials suspect the accident was caused by a mechanical fault, and critics blamed Turkey's underfunded, decrepit rail system. Transport officials said one of the rear wagons may have derailed first, pulling others off the line.

"Four wagons were derailed and fell on their sides," Mehmet Ayci of the state railways agency told Reuters. "We don't believe speed was the cause, because the train was traveling slower, between 75-80 km per hour (45-50 mph), in this area."

Many of the victims were children. Rescuers carried crying infants covered in blood into a nearby hospital.

A video grab image shows local people carrying a victim from a derailed train in the Turkish province of Sakarya, between Istanbul and Ankara, July 22, 2004. [Reuters]

"There are pieces of bodies everywhere, limbs have been severed," Oguz Dizer, a journalist at the scene, told CNN Turk.

The derailment occurred near the town of Pamukova at around 7:45 p.m. (12:45 p.m. EDT), almost two hours after leaving Istanbul, Turkey's commercial hub and biggest city.

The head of the crisis center, Muammer Turker, told reporters the train was carrying 234 passengers and nine crew.

TRAIN 'A GRAVE MISTAKE'

The new fast train connecting Ankara with Istanbul went into service in June amid much fanfare. Critics have said Turkey's train system was in need of complete modernization and was not capable of running high-speed services.

"Using the old track and simply making changes to accelerate the train was a grave mistake. Railway experts who said it was not possible to use this track were ignored," former transport minister Oktay Vural told CNN Turk.

Officials dismissed foul play, and parliamentary speaker Bulent Arinc said speculation about sabotage was "a fantasy."

"In these incidents, certain organizations, certain actions are mentioned as provocation ... From what I have learned from those involved, there is nothing like this," he told reporters.

Muslim but secular Turkey is seen as a prime target for Islamic militants, and the country remains on edge after four suicide bombings on Jewish and British sites in Istanbul last November. Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network claimed responsibility for the attacks that killed more than 60 people.

Al Qaeda is also believed to have been behind a series of train bombs in Madrid in March that killed almost 200 people.

Passenger Orcun Acabey, who was in a wagon where victims suffered slight injuries, accused the state of neglect.

"Before the crash, the train shook strongly two or three times at bends. First we swung to the left, then the carriage turned over to the right," he said, adding the train had not shaken like that on the many previous trips he had taken.

The densely populated region, close to the epicenter of a devastating 1999 earthquake that killed more than 18,000 people, has many hospitals, allowing rescue workers to quickly rush the injured to medical treatment.

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