About a dozen people were injured today when a crowded passenger train was derailed in the northeastern Indian state of Assam by a bomb suspected to have been planted by tribal separatists.
The bomb blast occurred this afternoon in the remote Bongaingaon district.
Local police chief Mr Hiren Nath said most of the 1,200 passengers appeared to have escaped with injuries.
"It was a miraculous escape. Seven coaches derailed and one of them exploded in flames. About a dozen passengers are injured but so far there are no reports of (fatalities)," he said.
Officials blamed the attack on outlawed tribal separatists belonging to the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB).
The explosives were hidden under a rail bridge and set off with a radio-controlled device, they added.
The NDFB was blamed for a similar bombing in 1998 in Assam that killed 33 passengers on board the prestigious inter-state Brahmaputra Express. Many more were maimed in the attack.
More than 20,000 people have died in separatist campaigns in Assam in the past 20 years. The ethnic Bodo tribespeople have been fighting for a homeland in the northeastern Indian state.
AFP