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Cars Filled With Fuel Products Exploded in Iran

Aired February 18, 2004 - 11:29   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 LIN, CNN ANCHOR: A runaway train filled with fuel products exploded in Iran today. Two hundred people are feared dead in the massive blast.
CNN's Matthew Chance is in Tehran with that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this appears to have been an explosion of huge proportions, involving a train several hundred kilometers from the Iranian capital, Tehran, in the province of Khorasan in the northeast of the country.

We're just building up a picture of what exactly happened before this explosion took place. It seems from the reports that we've got from the area that a number of carriages of a cargo train, that were carrying highly-flammable materials like petroleum, gasoline, sulfur and fertilizer, somehow became uncoupled from the main body of the train and began to roll away before careering at high speeds off the tracks into a populated area.

It seems, though, that the majority of the dead and injured were caused by some kind of secondary explosion that took place after many people from the local vicinity, as well as rescue workers, rushed to the scene to try and do what they could at the site of the accident and being caught up in a very large explosion indeed, which was heard by eyewitnesses some 50 miles, or 75 kilometers, from the actual site of the train wreck.

Just to give you an indication of how earth-moving that blast appears to have been, the Tehran University seismological department is reporting registering an earth tremor registering 3.6 on the scale of magnitude, which it says may have been sparked by the force of that blast.

So, it was an enormous explosion, which has left a great deal of casualties. The death toll is expected to rise over the hours ahead.

Matthew Chance, Tehran.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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 - 11:29   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: A runaway train filled with fuel products exploded in Iran today. Two hundred people are feared dead in the massive blast.
CNN's Matthew Chance is in Tehran with that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this appears to have been an explosion of huge proportions, involving a train several hundred kilometers from the Iranian capital, Tehran, in the province of Khorasan in the northeast of the country.

We're just building up a picture of what exactly happened before this explosion took place. It seems from the reports that we've got from the area that a number of carriages of a cargo train, that were carrying highly-flammable materials like petroleum, gasoline, sulfur and fertilizer, somehow became uncoupled from the main body of the train and began to roll away before careering at high speeds off the tracks into a populated area.

It seems, though, that the majority of the dead and injured were caused by some kind of secondary explosion that took place after many people from the local vicinity, as well as rescue workers, rushed to the scene to try and do what they could at the site of the accident and being caught up in a very large explosion indeed, which was heard by eyewitnesses some 50 miles, or 75 kilometers, from the actual site of the train wreck.

Just to give you an indication of how earth-moving that blast appears to have been, the Tehran University seismological department is reporting registering an earth tremor registering 3.6 on the scale of magnitude, which it says may have been sparked by the force of that blast.

So, it was an enormous explosion, which has left a great deal of casualties. The death toll is expected to rise over the hours ahead.

Matthew Chance, Tehran.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.