At least 100 people were killed when a goods train jumped the tracks in central Democratic Republic of Congo, with illegal passengers thought to be among the dead.
A government spokesman said: 'According to our information, at least 100 passengers have perished and dozens have been injured in the derailment of a goods train.'
The UN mission in Congo (MONUC) said earlier that at least 68 people died and 120 were injured when the train derailed some 170km north of Kananga, the capital of Western Kasai province.
State railway operator SNCC official Medard Illunga said the unusually high death toll for an accident involving a goods train had to do with 'clandestine passengers who habitually travel aboard goods carriages unbeknownst to SNCC agents'.
The SNCC set up an inquiry to determine the cause of the accident, the second in Western Kasai province in the space of three weeks.
Train accidents are relatively frequent in the DRC, where the colonial-era rail network has undergone little maintenance since independence in 1960.
