Moscow, 1 June 2025 (dpa/MIA) - At least seven people were killed and more than 60 others injured after a passenger train derailed following a bridge collapse in Russia late on Saturday, officials said on Sunday.

The bridge in Russia's Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, had been damaged as a result of "illegal interference," Moscow Railways said in a statement.

Bryansk Governor Alexander Bogomaz later confirmed reports about an explosion at the bridge, located about 80 kilometres from the border with Ukraine.

"There was an explosion on the bridge on the route while the Klimovo-Moscow train was travelling, with 388 passengers on board," he said on state television.

A span of the bridge collapsed and then fell onto a train passing underneath, the state-run Russian news agency TASS reported. The conductor of the train was among those killed, TASS added.

Governor Bogomaz said three children were among those injured. Three people, including one of the children, were in a serious condition, he wrote on Telegram, adding that 44 people had been hospitalized.

Ukraine's military has not commented on the derailment.

Meanwhile a freight train derailed after another bridge collapsed overnight in the neighbouring Kursk region, which also borders Ukraine and was partially occupied by Ukrainian troops for several months, according to the region's governor, Alexander Khinshtein.

Part of the train crashed onto a motorway under the bridge and the locomotive caught fire, he said on Telegram.

According to initial reports, the train driver was injured. The cause of the second bridge collapse is still unclear.

Russia launched a full-scale war against its neighbour Ukraine more than three years ago.

Photo: X screenshot