DAMASCUS, (SANA) – Director General of Railways George al-Mokabari on Sunday explained the criminal act that targeted the train from Aleppo to Damascus, using illustrations and diagrams to show that this act is a professional terrorist act as it was intended to kill all the train's passengers.

During the explanation which was broadcast by the Syrian TV, al-Mokabari pointed out that the location of the incident is 11 kilometers before the city of Homs on a bridge 35 meters long and 4 meters high located over a water surface.

He said that bike tracks indicate that the saboteurs disconnected a connector between two metal bars and six concrete rafters, causing the tracks to be misaligned which led to the derailing of the train which had 11 carriages each with a capacity of 50 passengers.

Al-Mokabari said the tampering caused the locomotive to shake violently and flip, separating the locomotive from the carriages and causing it to burn, killing the driver Abdelkader Layla and injuring his assistant severely.

He noted that the carriages also derailed except the last three, adding that the passengers were saved by divine intervention, going on to explain that two other potential scenarios of this incident would have caused both the locomotive and the carriages to flip and burn, while the second could have led to the carriages falling into the water source beneath the bridge.

Al-Mokabari said that any of these two scenarios could have cause the death of the 485 passengers who were on board, who included children, women and elderly people, affirming that the General Establishment of Syrian Railways is working in cooperation with relevant authorities to ensure the safety of its trains across the country.

16 passengers were injured during this incident, which also caused damages estimated at around USD 6 million.

H. Sabbagh