Two Moscow metro workers have been arrested over Tuesday’s derailment of a train which killed 21 people. Russian investigators say the track supervisor and his assistant are suspected of having made mistakes on wiring during work carried out in May. Wednesday has been designated an official day of mourning in the Russian capital.
Moscow mourns the (21 cut out) people lost in the derailment of a train in one of the deepest sections of the metro network.The crash also injured over 160 people and over 1000 had to be evacuated.Work continues to try and bring the entire metro back on line.
"Workmen are taking over from one other every one or two hours, so that the work can be carried out intensively and without any breaks. Investigators need to work alongside the workmen, studying practically every meter of the site of the accident, the work isn’t going at the ideal speed," Sergei Sobyanin, Moscow Mayor said.
On such a congested metro - the closure of sections of it causes significant disruption.
The Moscow metro system is one of the busiest on earth.On a normal weekday more than 9 million people use the network to get around the city.
It’s thought a power surge caused the derailment on a metro that critics have long said is under-funded and badly maintained.But officials are not committing themselves yet on the exact cause of the tragedy.
"I don’t want to make any estimates now because there is a investigative group and a commission and they will be the ones to draw conclusions. It’s true that some repair works were carried out on the track the Sunday night before the accident, but we don’t know yet what the effect of those was," Ivan Besedin, Head of Moscow metro said.
Authorities have moved quickly to make the first arrests over the disaster.Meanwhile, Moscow pays its respects to those who died.
