Myanmar train blaze leaves 25 dead, 100 injured

YANGON — Investigators searched for clues Saturday to the cause of a train derailment and an ensuing blaze that killed 25 people and injured nearly 100 more in northern Myanmar.

Two petrol tankers loaded onto the train overturned in Friday’s accident and local villagers collecting the fuel were burned to death as flames tore across the crash site.

While the death toll did not rise overnight, police said 93 injured people were undergoing treatment, most of them in local hospitals in the town of Kantbalu in the Sagaing Region bordering India.

“I don’t think the death toll will rise. The people who died perished on the spot when they were burnt,” a police officer in Kantbalu told Agence France-Presse by telephone, requesting anonymity.

The officer added that the cause of the accident was still unknown.

Photographs posted on a government website Friday showed the charred remains of victims and debris scattered around the wreck site.

Residents in the remote area rely on trains as the roads are poor, but the rail system is in desperate need of renewal after years of underinvestment.

Long isolated under almost half a century of junta rule, Myanmar has embarked upon a rapid series of political and economic reforms under President Thein Sein, who is now wooing foreign investors to boost the ailing economy.