Scores dead in Congo-Brazzaville train crash

Seventy-six people have been killed and nearly 300 others wounded in a train accident in the south of Congo-Brazzaville. The accident happened early on Tuesday morning, about 60 kilometres from the city of Pointe Noire, when several cars derailed.

Overloading is the suspected cause. The Transport Ministry said it did not have a toll from the accident, which happened between Bilinga and Tchitondi.

"Since last night we've received over a hundred people, some severely wounded," a doctor at the Loandjili General Hospital in Pointe Noire told RFI. "They have open wounds, fractures, haemorrhages. Everything you can imagine which follows a violent accident."

He called it a horror scene and said it was made worse because it happpened in a remote area.

"Emergency help can't get there quickly and it happened at night," he said. "It's terrible."

In September 1991, a collision on the same line left 100 dead and 300 wounded.