Kursk, June 1: A freight train locomotive and three of its empty cars derailed on Sunday after a railway bridge collapsed in Russia's Zheleznogorsk district of the Kursk region, marking the second such incident in under 24 hours.

The acting governor of the region, Alexander Khinshtein, reported that the collapse occurred on the 48th kilometre of the Trosna-Kalinovka highway.

"Tonight, on the 48th km of the Trosna-Kalinovka highway in the Zheleznogorsk District, a bridge collapsed when a freight train was crossing it. Part of the train fell down onto a road located under the bridge," Khinshtein stated on his Telegram channel.

He added that the locomotive caught fire, but emergency response teams from the Ministry of Emergency Situations quickly contained the blaze. The rest of the train remains on the railway platform.

According to preliminary information, one of the train's drivers sustained leg injuries.

Authorities have suspended traffic on the road underneath the collapsed bridge as a precaution.

This incident comes shortly after a separate derailment late Saturday in Russia's Bryansk region, where a passenger train plunged off the tracks following another bridge collapse.

The passenger train was travelling from Moscow to Klimov when it derailed in the Vygonichskyi district.

At least seven people were killed and 69 others injured in that crash, Bryansk Governor Alexander Bogomaz confirmed.

The train's locomotive driver was among the deceased, according to Russian state media, citing medical sources.

The Ministry of Emergency Situations announced that approximately 180 personnel were deployed to the Bryansk site to assist with rescue efforts and to search for any remaining victims.

Authorities have cited "illegal interference" as the likely cause behind the Bryansk derailment.

Reports from the Baza Telegram channel, known for sourcing information from Russian law enforcement and security services, suggested that preliminary findings indicated the bridge might have been deliberately blown up.

However, no concrete evidence has yet been provided to support this claim.

The Bryansk, Kursk, and Belgorod regions have frequently come under cross-border shelling, drone strikes, and covert operations from Ukrainian territory since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

(IANS)

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