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CNN Live At Daybreak
More than 200 Killed in Iranian Train Accident
Aired February 18, 2004 - 06:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We want to get more now on that train accident out of Iran. More than 200 have been killed, hundreds injured, when two runaway cars carrying explosive materials left the tracks.
Matthew Chance brings us more details in a report he filed just a few minutes ago from Tehran.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, we're slowly building up a picture of what exactly happened to cause this train disaster of quite big proportions. You can see these pictures that have come in to us within the last few minutes.
An enormous explosion ripping through a populated area, the result of a train, a cargo train, loaded with flammable materials like petrol and sulfur and other materials that apparently came uncoupled from the main body of the train. It sort of went on a runaway thing and eventually careered at high speeds off the tracks into a populated area.
The majority of the killed and injured that we have this point, 200 people confirmed dead and at least 350 people injured. The majority of those casualties being caused by villagers, onlookers, rescue workers rushing to the scene just ahead of a kind of secondary explosion that really ripped through the entire area, an enormous blast, according to witnesses, that could be heard some 60 miles away from the actual scene of the accident.
Just to give you a better indication of how big that blast was, Tehran University, its seismological department is reporting hearing at exactly the same time measuring a tremor coming from the same area registering 3.6 on the scale of magnitude. So, it was an enormous explosion caused by these inflammable materials.
And then, of course, a great deal of casualties and damage as well -- Carol.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: All right, that was Matthew Chance from Tehran. We're going to get him live at the bottom of the half-hour.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired February 18, 2004 - 06:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We want to get more now on that train accident out of Iran. More than 200 have been killed, hundreds injured, when two runaway cars carrying explosive materials left the tracks.
Matthew Chance brings us more details in a report he filed just a few minutes ago from Tehran.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, we're slowly building up a picture of what exactly happened to cause this train disaster of quite big proportions. You can see these pictures that have come in to us within the last few minutes.
An enormous explosion ripping through a populated area, the result of a train, a cargo train, loaded with flammable materials like petrol and sulfur and other materials that apparently came uncoupled from the main body of the train. It sort of went on a runaway thing and eventually careered at high speeds off the tracks into a populated area.
The majority of the killed and injured that we have this point, 200 people confirmed dead and at least 350 people injured. The majority of those casualties being caused by villagers, onlookers, rescue workers rushing to the scene just ahead of a kind of secondary explosion that really ripped through the entire area, an enormous blast, according to witnesses, that could be heard some 60 miles away from the actual scene of the accident.
Just to give you a better indication of how big that blast was, Tehran University, its seismological department is reporting hearing at exactly the same time measuring a tremor coming from the same area registering 3.6 on the scale of magnitude. So, it was an enormous explosion caused by these inflammable materials.
And then, of course, a great deal of casualties and damage as well -- Carol.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: All right, that was Matthew Chance from Tehran. We're going to get him live at the bottom of the half-hour.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
