IRAN - Feb. 18 - Over 330 Dead In Train Blast.

Runaway train wagons laden with a lethal cocktail of fuel and fertilisers crash into Khayyam north-east Iran, blowing up and killing at least 330 people. The wagons of petrol, fertiliser and sulphur products careered down the line, derailed, caught fire and later exploded as firefighters and villagers crowded nearby. Tremors in the quake-prone region set the unmanned column of 51 wagons moving, but officials later said the tremor could have been the jolt of the blast itself, leaving unclear why the wagons had rolled away. State TV showed flames licking from mangled, charred wagons, with thick black smoke billowing into the sky at the scene in the saffron-growing province of Khorasan. Hundreds of injured were taken to hospital in Nishapur, hometown of mediaeval poet Omar Khayyam (whose name the stricken village, Khayyam, carries). Many of the wounded had severe burns and doctors were calling for urgent blood supplies. (The disaster comes amid political uncertainty, 2 days ahead of disputed elections in a country still recovering from a December earthquake that killed over 40,000 people in the ancient citadel city of Bam, some 650 km further south).