At least 63 killed as speeding Congo train derails: government official

(Reuters) – At least 63 people were killed and 80 were seriously injured in Democratic Republic of Congo’s Katanga province when a train speeding too fast round a bend derailed, a provincial minister said on Wednesday.

Fifty others were trapped inside the goods train after 12 of its carriages flipped off the track in the accident near Likasi, a mining town between Lubumbashi and Kolwezi in the copper and cobalt-rich southeast.

“Evidently the train was going too fast, the driver came to a curve and had to break suddenly leading to the accident,” said Dikanga Kazadi, Katanga’s interior minister.

He said the priority was rescuing those still trapped and a team had been sent to investigate the cause of the accident. A witness said he counted 37 bodies at the scene.