A road bridge collapsed onto a railway in western Russia, derailing a passenger train and killing at least eight people, investigative and railway officials said. Initial reports blamed an explosion.
In a separate incident in a neighboring region early on June 1, a railway bridge collapsed as a freight train was crossing it, injuring at least one of the train drivers, the local governor said.
It was not immediately clear whether the two incidents, which occurred late on May 31 in Bryansk and early June 1 in Kursk, were connected. Statements issued by the national Investigative Committee initially cited explosions as a possible cause, but that allegation was omitted from later statements.
In the Bryansk region, which borders Belarus and Ukraine, a passenger train was struck by debris from an overpass at around 11 p.m. local time, the Investigative Committee said in a statement.
The committee said the collapse was due to an explosion, and it blamed "illegal interference" without giving further details. The train was traveling to Moscow.
Aleksandr Bogomaz, governor of the Bryansk region, said in a post on Telegram that seven people were killed and nearly four dozen injured.
Photographs and video published on social media showed rescue crews working under spotlights to pick through the wreckage of the train cars. Russia's national railways company confirmed the derailment and said it was sending crews to help in the recovery. It said no disruptions to rail traffic were expected.
The second incident occurred around 3 a.m. on June 1 in the Kursk region, officials said, about 90 kilometers to the south of the Bryansk derailment. A cargo train fell onto a highway as the train was crossing an overpass, said the Investigative Committee.
In an initial statement released midmorning on June 1, the committee cited explosions as a possible cause for the incidents. But a statement issued around two hours later omitted mention of an explosion.
There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy, which was first reported by the independent Russian news outlets Vot Tak and MediaZona.
Aleksandr Khinshtein, the Kursk regional governor, said at least one of the train drivers was injured. The Investigative Committee said three train employees were hospitalized.
Russian Railways, the state-owned national rail company, later said one of the train workers had died after being hospitalized.
The timing and location of the two separate events and the initial allegation that explosions could be responsible, raising fears of possible sabotage.
Bordering Belarus and Ukraine, both the Bryansk and Kursk regions have a heavy military presence as part of Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. The Kursk region was the site of a seven-month cross-border invasion by Ukrainian forces; in late April, Russia claimed to have pushed out all Ukrainian forces from Kursk.
Russia's war on Ukraine has continued unabated as the United States and other Western nations have pushed Kyiv and Moscow to sit down for peace talks.
The two sides are expected to meet in Istanbul on June 2 for the second round of talks; an earlier round produced no substantive breakthrough, although the two sides agreed to exchange hundreds of prisoners of war.
Though Ukraine has agreed to an unconditional cease-fire, Russia has dragged its heels, proposing additional broader conditions including a stop to Western weaponry supplies for Ukraine as well as the demand that Ukraine should never be allowed to join NATO.
