Dozens feared dead and injured as fuel tanker train in Congo falls into ravine

As many as 33 people were feared dead in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday after a freight train carrying fuel plunged into a ravine.

The UN’s Radio Okapi said there had been 33 fatalities with an unknown number injured in the accident, which occurred in the province of Lualaba.

Jean-Marie Tshizainga, the minister of mines of Lualaba province, gave a toll of eight dead and several injured.

“The toll could be significantly higher,” he said.

The train, in which the victims were travelling illegally, was running between the country’s second city of Lubumbashi and Luena.

It was hauling 13 oil tankers and derailed on a slope near Lubudi. It fell into a ravine and the tankers caught fire, according to the radio report.

“It wasn’t supposed to be carrying passengers. If there were people on board, we consider them to be illegal travellers,” said Sylvestre Ilunga Ilukamba, an official of the national railway company.

The region has suffered several fatal train accidents. In 2014, a freight train derailed, killing 74 people and injuring 163, according to officials, but the Red Cross said as many as 200 corpses had been buried. A month later, the national news agency reported 136 deaths.

In July 1987, near the Zambian border, 150 people died when a train crashed into a lorry.

Railway company official says there were hitchers aboard train and that they were there illegally