Saudi passenger train derails, many hurt: senior official

A Saudi passenger train heading from the kingdom's eastern city of Dammam to the capital Riyadh derailed today, causing injuries but no deaths, a senior transportation official said.

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RIYADH // A Saudi passenger train heading from the kingdom's eastern city of Dammam to the capital Riyadh derailed on Wednesday, causing injuries but no deaths, a senior transportation official said.

Hamad Abdel Qader, deputy chief of operations at the Saudi Railways Organisation, told AFP that the train derailed "100 kilometres (62 miles) east of Riyadh."

He said there were "no deaths in the accident ... but several" people were wounded, including one man who was evacuated to Riyadh for medical treatment.

The train was travelling along Saudi Arabia's only passenger rail link, some 400 kilometres (250 miles) long, that connects Riyadh and Dammam, a coastal city in the vast desert kingdom's oil-rich Eastern province.

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