Russia hunts for bomb clues

• Source: Global Times
• [01:55 November 30 2009]
• Comments

Some detached parts of a derailed train are seen on the site of the accident near the town of Bologoye, Russia, Nov. 28, 2009.  (Xinhua/Lu Jinbo)

Twenty-five people were killed in the Russian train wreck Friday, a government minister said Sunday, after officials had previously put the death toll at 26.

Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu also said 26 people were still unaccounted for after the derailment late Friday evening, but he indicated that they were not believed to be among the dead.

"Right now, ... 25 are dead while 26 people are missing. They are neither in hospitals among the injured, nor among the dead," Shoigu said in a government meeting shown on television.

It remained unclear what had motivated the attackers to strike the Nevsky Express, a train popular with well-off Russians and foreign tourists, as it ran from Moscow to Saint Petersburg late Friday evening.

"An active investigative and operational effort is underway to identify and find the individuals involved in the crime," Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for investigators, said on state television.

Markin said forensic experts had returned Sunday to the scene of the disaster, about 400 kilometers northwest of Moscow, to look for clues.