Train death toll reaches 76

The death toll from Monday's rail disaster at Yanga in the Republic of Congo has reached 76, with hundreds also injured.

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The death toll from Monday's rail disaster at Yanga in the Republic of Congo has reached 76.

It was confirmed by a member of the crisis unit in Pointe Noire, who also said, "The bodies are all at the morgue in Pointe-Noire,".

On Tuesday, the Republic of Congo government issued a provisional toll of 48 dead and more than 400 injured in the accident, and said the search for more bodies would continue.

Raoul Essou, the deputy head of the Chemin de fer Congo-ocean (CFCO) railway company emphasised that there could be no exhaustive death toll until all the carriages had been cleared.

The train derailed around 60km from the southern city of Pointe-Noire. Several witnesses said it appeared to be travelling too fast.

The head of CFCO Joseph Sauveur El Bez acknowledged that the high death toll was "because the train was overloaded. There were too many passengers."

The CFCO chief also put down the crash to driver error. "The train was fine. The track was in good condition," he said.

The 510km CFCO line is the main link between the capital Brazzaville and Pointe Noire on the Atlantic.

Mainly following the Congo River, it was constructed between 1921 and 1934 during French colonial rule and thousands of Africans are said to have died building it.

In September 1991, a collision on the same line left 100 dead and 300 injured in the country's worst ever rail disaster.



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Source: AFP

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