Up to 33 people are feared dead in the Democratic
Republic of Congo after a freight train carrying fuel plunged into a ravine. The
UN's radio Okapi spoke of 33 fatalities with others injured or burned in the
accident that occurred in the sprawling mineral-rich province of Katanga.
The train, in which The victims were travelling illegally in
the freight train that was running between the country's second city Lubumbashi
to Luena in Katanga.
But Jean-Marie Tshizainga, the minister of mines of Lualaba province said "Up until now the toll is eight dead and several injured. The toll could be significantly higher,"
The train was transporting 13 oil tankers and derailed while
climbing a slope near the station of Lubudi. It fell into a ravine and the
tankers caught fire, radio Okapi said."It's a freight train that derailed
and it wasn't supposed to be carrying passengers. If there were people on
board, we consider them to be illegal travelers," said Sylvestre Ilunga Ilukamba,
a senior official from the national railway company. Katanga has witnessed
several deadly train accidents. In 2014, a freight train derailed killing 74
people and injured 163, according to officials but the Red Cross said up to 200
corpses had been buried. The national news agency a month later spoke of 136
deaths. Another train accident in July 1987 near the Zambian border killed 150
people after crashing into a truck.
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