Workers prepare to remove a railway carriage after a train derailed near the village of Uglovka in Russia's Novgorod region on November 28, 2009, as it was travelling between Moscow and Saint Petersburg. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images)
Now, 26 people are missing, 85 are in hospital, and 21 of those are in grave conditions, according to Russian emergency officials and media. Six foreigners were injured in the attack. The incident took place near the town of Bologoye, 400 km (248 miles) northwest of Moscow.
The Nevsky Express, one of Russia's fastest trains, is a popular line for tourists and businessmen. In August 2007 a similar incident happened on the route, when another derailment caused by a bomb left 60 people injured.
Several state officials were traveling in the train, among them Sergei Tarasov, the former vice governor of St. Petersburg and Boris Yevstratikov, head of the Federal Agency of State Reserves.
According to the Russian agency RIA Novosti, one of the passenger recalled: “The last two carriages were completely crushed. It was the kind of thing I've only seen in horror films.” Another man added that “people were being thrown about like matches.”
Delovoi Petersburg news reported that first aid kits couldn't be found in the train. “There weren't even any flashlights to look for the injured with,” one passenger told the media. The emergency services arrived about an hour and a half after the incident occurred.
During the rescue operations on Saturday, a second, weaker bomb exploded at 2:00 p.m., but didn't injured anyone.
Russians mourned on Sunday during religious ceremonies and at soccer stadiums. Patriarch Kirill, leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, led a service for the victims at Christ the Savior Cathedral. Moments of silence were also held before Russian soccer matches.
U.S. President Barack Obama issued a statement, saying that he was “deeply saddened by the terrible loss of life and injuries.”
Railway traffic between Moscow and St. Petersburg was fully restored as of Sunday morning, according to the state-run Russian Railways press office.
Russian authorities are searching for the perpetrators of the bombing. “The criminals left quite a lot of evidence,” Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said in a television interview.
In the early part of the decade, Russia was hit by several attacks in trains and subways, linked to Muslim separatists from Chechnya. The last one occurred in 2005 when a train from Chechnya to Moscow was derailed in a bomb attack.
