Kinshasa:At least 60 people were killed and some 60 others wounded when a train derailed in the southeast region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), authorities said Wednesday.
The accident occurred Tuesday when the train was turning around a bend close to the Katongola bridge, which is near the station at Katongola, a town in the southern Katanga province, Xinhua quoted national train service officials as saying.
The freight train, which also carried hundreds of passengers, was travelling from Kamina, a town in Katanga province, to Mwene-Ditu in the province of Kasai-Oriental, one of the richest diamond producing regions in the world.
A survivor said the train derailed on a slope to the level of the Katongola bridge.
Most of the victims were tradesmen, said Katongola station chief Jean Ngoy Mozadi.
The death toll was feared to rise because some victims were still trapped in the overturned cars, officials said.