On 3 February, a train hauling 20 cars containing hazardous materials from Norfolk Southern derailed in East Palestine, Ohio. A big fire erupted because of the derailment, leading to officials burning vinyl chloride inside five of the tanker cars to avoid a catastrophic explosion.
Rail travel is considered one of the safest modes of transport. But every now and again a disaster occurs to remind us that these steel stallions can occasionally be powerful adversaries creating mayhem of enormous proportions.Take a look at Sputnik's gallery showing the most terrifying accidents on the railways so far this century:
On 3 February, a train hauling 20 cars containing hazardous materials from Norfolk Southern derailed in East Palestine, Ohio. A big fire erupted because of the derailment, leading to officials burning vinyl chloride inside five of the tanker cars to avoid a catastrophic explosion.
Rail travel is considered one of the safest modes of transport. But every now and again a disaster occurs to remind us that these steel stallions can occasionally be powerful adversaries creating mayhem of enormous proportions.
Take a look at Sputnik's gallery showing the most terrifying accidents on the railways so far this century:
On 1 March 2023, a passenger train collided with a freight train some 380km (235 miles) north of Athens, near Larissa in Greece. Several train cars were derailed and as a result, 57 people died and 48 were injured.
At least 131 people were killed and some 400 injured on 11 March 2004 in near-simultaneous explosions on three trains in Madrid at the height of morning commuter traffic. In what appeared to be a deliberate attack staged only 72 hours ahead of Spanish general elections, the blasts went off on a long-distance high-speed carrier and two suburban trains packed with commuters.
A train hurtled off the tracks on 24 July 2013, in north-west Spain, killing at least 78 passengers and injuring more than 140. Our picture shows a fireman carrying an injured young girl after the accident near the city of Santiago de Compostela.
107 people were killed, and 562 others injured on 25 April 2005, in western Japan when a commuter train derailed, sending one carriage hurtling into an apartment block in Amagasaki, Hyogo prefecture in what was the nation's deadliest rail accident in 14 years.
A passenger train derailed near Pukhrayan in Kanpur district, in northern India on 20 November 2016, killing at least 63 travelers - most of whom were sleeping when the fatal accident occurred.
On 13 July 2005, the Quetta Express stopped at Sarhad railway station in Pakistan and was hit from behind by the Karachi Express train, causing several cars to derail. The accident left nearly 150 people dead.
The Wenzhou train collision occurred on 23 July 2011 in China, when two high-speed trains travelling on the Yong-Tai-Wen railway line collided on a viaduct in Lucheng District, Wenzhou, Zhejiang province. The collision left more than 33 dead and nearly 200 injured.
On 6 July 2013 an unattended 73-car freight train carrying Bakken Formation crude oil rolled down a 1.2 percent gradient from Nantes, in the Canadian province of Quebec and derailed downtown. As a result, several cars exploded and the death toll of 47 makes this the fourth-deadliest rail accident in Canadian history.
Visitors look out from inside the wrecked coach of the Queen of the Sea, a train that was swept away by giant waves of the tsunami at Peraliya, Sri Lanka on Sunday, 20 February 2005.
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