MOSCOW, July 7 (RIA Novosti) – A half-kilometer of track (a third of a mile) was found damaged after sections of a passenger train derailed in southern Russia’s Krasnodar Region on Sunday, an emergency official told RIA Novosti.
Five train cars overturned and another three fell onto one side in the derailment, in the district of Kushyovsky, about 140 kilometers north of Sochi, said Oleg Voronov, a spokesman for Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry. It was earlier reported that only five cars had derailed.
An official earlier cited the locomotive’s engineer as saying summer heat might have distorted the tracks, causing the derailment. A high of 33 degrees Celsius (90 Fahrenheit) was reported for the area that day.
About 70 people of the more than 600 aboard were reportedly injured in the wreck. Sixteen, including five children, have been hospitalized.
According to preliminary information, no one was killed.
The train had traveled some 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) from the Siberian metropolis of Novosibirsk when the cars derailed just hours north of the final destination, Adler, on the Black Sea, according to information provided by an emergency official.
Adler is the southernmost district of the city of Sochi, which will host next year’s Winter Olympics.
