A freight train has crashed into a passenger train in the Moscow Region. There are reports about multiple injured and at least five dead. Injured passengers are being carried out of the carriages by hand. Rescuers are working at the scene, Russia Today reported.
"Today at 12:38pm (08:38 GMT) a freight and a commuter train collided on the Bekasovo-Nara railroad near the regional center of Naro-Fominsk," reported the transport police press service.
According to preliminary reports, four persons died in the incident.
Up to 45 passengers have been injured, 15 of them are in a serious condition.
"We now know about five dead," confirmed the head of Naro-Fominsk Region Vadim Andronov. "It is possible that the number of dead and injured passengers will grow as one overturned passenger carriage has been blocked by a container from the freighter train, which now remains on top of it. Rescuers are entering the second damaged passenger carriage right now."
Health Minister of the Moscow Region Nina Suslova has assured that all injured people will receive "all the necessary medical treatment." Three helicopters are being used to help evacuate the injured, she said.
Semyon, an eyewitness to the crash site, told RT that the scene is full of ambulances coming and going, taking the injured to hospitals.
The freighter train has already been dragged away. And unhurt passengers from the passenger train have been asked to return to their reserved seats so that they do not interfere with the rescue operation.
The passenger train was heading from Moscow to Chisinau, the capital of Moldova.
There was no head-on collision, yet 16 carriages of the freighter and three passenger carriages left the rails.
Russian Railways has deployed two maintenance parties, consisting of 45 repair personnel and 16 units of equipment, to put the carriages back on the rails and repair the railroad infrastructure.
The service on the damaged railway line has been temporarily suspended.