At least 91 people died and 146 were injured when a train struck a landmine east of the Angolan capital Luanda, the Portuguese news agency Lusareported today.
The train, consisting of four passenger cars, two freight cars and two oil containers, was derailed by the explosion. Up to 500 passengers were reported aboard.
Angola, ravaged by civil war almost non-stop since independence from Portugal in 1975, is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world.
Latest figures were released to local radio by a member of a commission of enquiry. Earlier reports spoke of 16 dead and 56 injured.
A final casualty total had not yet been established because passenger cars were still in flames late Saturday, Lusareported.
The accident occurred yesterday afternoon between the towns of Zenza and Dondo in Cuanza Norte Province, 150 kilometers (95 miles) east of Luanda, Lusa said, quoting officials.
About half a million people in Angola are trapped in areas littered with antipersonnel and anti-tank mines or where fighting continues, according to a UN report issued last Wednesday.
Estimates vary on how many landmines are in Angola. Independent groups put the number between eight and 15 million, while the government says the number is five to eight million.
The war between government forces and rebels of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) has left an estimated 500,000 dead, another 100,000 mutilated, and four million people displaced out of a population of 12 million.
AFP