AZERBAIJAN: SURVIVORS ARE TREATED IN HOSPITAL FOLLOWING FIRE ON UNDERGROUND TRAIN.

Record ID: 218552

  • Title: AZERBAIJAN: SURVIVORS ARE TREATED IN HOSPITAL FOLLOWING FIRE ON UNDERGROUND TRAIN.
  • Date: 28th October 1995
  • Summary: BAKU, AZERBAIJAN (OCTOBER 28-29, 1995) (REUTERS TELEVISION - ACCESS ALL) (OCTOBER 28) 1. SV PANS NIGHT VIEW INJURED WOMAN BEING BROUGHT INTO HOSPITAL 0.22 2. SV/ZOOM INJURED WOMAN BEING GIVEN OXYGEN ON RESPIRATOR (2 SHOTS) 0.33 3. SV UNIDENTIFIED DOCTOR SAYING THERE ARE MANY VERY SERIOUSLY INJURED. SOME HAVING
  • Embargoed: 12th November 1995 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BAKU, AZERBAIJAN
  • City:
  • Country: EUROPE Azerbaijan
  • Reuters ID: LVA6L7BFLB67MXF25XAXM33FW087
  • Story Text: Three hundred people were feared dead and at least 140 injured when an underground railway train caught fire in Azerbaijan's capital Baku and rescue workers said on Sunday (October 29) the toll could rise.

    A Baku police spokesman said a confirmed 289 people had been killed and 140 taken to hospital, most of them from burns and smoke-inhalation. Hospital officials put the figures at more like 337 dead and 270 injured.

    Firemen, working in choking fumes to bring bodies to the surface told the independent Azeri news agency Turan they feared the death toll might reach 600.

    Police suggested a spark from high voltage cables had started the fire. But a Moscow radio station quoted sources in Baku as saying sabotage had not been ruled out following two bomb attacks on the underground in the past 18 months.

    Witnesses said there was panic in the train when it came to a halt in a tunnel between the Ulduz and Narimanov underground stations in central Baku early on Saturday evening and smoke began to pour into the carriages.

    Police said the dead included 28 children, 126 women and 135 men.

    Officials said normal services had resumed on the underground network by Sunday morning.

    One rescue worker said smoke had initially been so thick that it had been impossible to enter the tunnel.

    Initial reports said 70 passengers were evacuated safely from the burning train, which was thought to be five carriages long. It was left stranded in the tunnel.

    President Haydar Aliyev declared Sunday and Monday days of mourning in Azerbaijan.

    He set up a special investigation commission headed by Deputy Prime Minister Abbas Abbasov.

    The commission has not yet announced its findings. But, in a message of condolence read out on television and radio, the president suggested a "technical fault" had caused the fire.

    In Moscow, the Echo Moskvy radio station quoted sources close to the president as saying Azeri security organs had not excluded the possibility of sabotage.

    But Azerbaijan's top prosecutor, Eldar Hasanov, said there were no grounds yet to support this theory.

    Twenty people have died and dozens have been injured in two bomb attacks at Baku's underground system in the past 18 months.

    No one claimed responsibility for either attack, but the authorities suspected political opponents of Aliyev. The opposition rejected such claims.

    The volatile Transcaucasus republic is also involved in a bitter territorial dispute with Armenia.


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