Commuter train derails in Russia after 2 meters of track go missing; governor walks back initial suggestion of explosion
A commuter train on the Razumnoye–Tomarovka route derailed in the Yakovlevsky district of Russia’s Belgorod region, regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
The cause was approximately two meters of missing track, according to preliminary information from local authorities.
“The engineer was forced to make an emergency stop. This caused half a car to derail. At the time of the accident, 15 people were on the train; one woman sustained a laceration on her leg and a soft-tissue bruise on her back,” Gladkov said.
In an initial post, Gladkov wrote that the missing section of track “could have been caused by the detonation of an explosive device.” He later edited the post to say the incident involved “the absence of approximately two meters of track, which could have been caused by damage,” without specifying what kind.
Defense Ministry sappers are working at the scene, the governor said.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, several railway lines and other infrastructure facilities have been blown up on Russian territory. In June 2025, a series of explosions struck the Bryansk, Kursk, and Voronezh regions. In the Bryansk region, a road bridge collapsed onto a passing passenger train, killing seven people and injuring more than a hundred.
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