The Soviet Union's deadliest postwar train disaster occurred 30 years ago, claiming 575 lives and injuring 800 -- according to official figures. The cause was a powerful explosion of gas that had leaked from a nearby pipeline, estimated to be the equivalent of 10,000 tons of TNT. Two trains, carrying vacationers to and from Black Sea resorts, were affected.
Mass Death On Soviet Rails, 30 Years Later
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The accident occurred in the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, now called Bashkortostan, at 1:15 a.m. on June 4, 1989.
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The blast destroyed 37 railway cars and two locomotives on two trains. The resulting fire covered 250 hectares.
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A Soviet soldier appears deeply affected amid charred human remains.
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A Soviet soldier appears deeply affected amid charred human remains.
A Soviet soldier appears deeply affected amid charred human remains.
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Rescue teams remove unrecognizable remains from the wreckage.
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Rescue teams remove unrecognizable remains from the wreckage.
Rescue teams remove unrecognizable remains from the wreckage.
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Relatives and friends of the victims arrive at the scene. It was known as the Ufa rail disaster, after the nearest town 50 kilometers away.
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Relatives and friends of the victims are pictured at the scene of the explosion.
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A badly burned victim is evacuated from the scene of the accident.
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This victim is being flown from Ufa to Moscow for treatment.
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Relatives and friends of passengers at the scene of the disaster. Many of the victims were never found.
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Soviet soldiers clear the debris at the site of the explosion.
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Emergency teams work to restore the railroad in the shadow of a wrecked train.
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Residents of Ufa came to donate blood for the injured.
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Another victim with burns, on a flight to Moscow for treatment.
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Another victim with burns, on a flight to Moscow for treatment.
Another victim with burns, on a flight to Moscow for treatment.
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A nurse in Ufa city hospital with victims of the catastrophe. More than 300 people died in hospitals from their injuries in the days following the explosion.
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People check lists of hospitalized victims in Ufa, Chelyabinsk, and Kuybyshev on June 13, 1989, in the city of Novosibirsk.
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Relatives and friends of the disaster commemorate the victims at the site of the explosion on the first anniversary on June 4, 1990.
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The scorched interior of a train carriage.
