Explosion Rocks Romania's Largest Refinery - Petromidia
An explosion shook the largest Romanian refinery, Petromidia, located in Constanta County on the Black Sea coas
A cargo train, composed of 23 tankers, was entering the railway station of Hitrino, a village in northeastern Bulgaria, when twelve of the cisterns went off the track and one exploded.
At least seven people lost their and twenty-nine others were injured. Dozens of houses were damaged or destroyed.
Twenty of the containers had propylene and three were loaded with liquefied petroleum gas. The composition was headed to Ruse, operated by Bulmarket, the first private company granted license for cargo transportation.
Of the twelve tanks left stuck in the center of Hitrino (with the village's rail line crossing it down the middle), nine are full of propylene and the rest with LPG.
A manoeuvre was required at the Hitrino railway station to give way to a passenger train, police and local officials say.
However, the four cisterns derailed as the train was making a turn to enter another track, with Hitrino mayor Nuridin Ismail blaming the development on high speed.
According to Transport Minister Ivaylo Moskovski a man working at the station, who was to regulate the train's entry and manoeuvres and sustained burns on the hands in the incident, argued sparks could be seen coming out of the locomotive as it was arriving to the station.
In Moskovski's words, sparks could appear after an attempt to briskly slow down the train.
Neither claim was immediately verified.
Police data, cited by the Bulgarian National Radio, suggests the last two waggons of the cargo train entered in contact with the electricity grid.
With the train driver having survived and testifying before authorities, more details on the development are expected soon.
We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!
Shock and outrage spread through Bulgaria as news emerged that the grave of the late Patriarch Neophyte was desecrated by unknown perpetrators, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church revealed on Tuesday morning
The village of Chernookovo in the Dobrich region of Bulgaria was rocked by a horrifying incident that left the community reeling in disbelief and outrage
Doctors at "Pirogov" Hospital successfully extracted a bullet from the brain of a 2-year-old child who was airlifted from Vratsa following a tragic shooting incident
A devastating incident unfolded this afternoon near Vratsa, Bulgaria, where a one-and-a-half-year-old child was shot in the head under unknown circumstances
A shocking incident in Sofia's Tolstoy district has left residents outraged after a taxi driver narrowly avoided a mother and child while crossing the street, only to flee the scene
The pop-folk singer Debora Ivanova has found herself in the midst of controversy after reportedly causing a car accident in Sofia
UN Happiness Report: Bulgaria's Astonishing Leap in Rankings
Bulgaria: 3 Regions With Lowest Life Expectancy - EU Report 2022