A passenger train traveling through eastern Iran struck an excavator and derailed nearly half its cars before dawn Wednesday, killing at least 21 people and injuring another 47, officials said.
The train derailment near the desert city of Tabas was the latest disaster to strike the Islamic Republic in recent weeks as Tehran struggles under US sanctions and any return to its nuclear deal with world powers remains in doubt.
The train operated by the state-run Islamic Republic Railway carried some 350 people as it traveled from Tabas, some 550 kilometers (340 miles) southeast of Tehran, to the city of Yazd. It struck the excavator as the train traveled over a railroad underpass in the rural scrubland, sending cars and its passengers flying.
