CNN - Azerbaijan mourns subway victims - Oct. 30, 1995
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Official calls subway disaster sabotage

smashed train October 30, 1995
Web posted at: 2:30 p.m. EST (1930 GMT)

BAKU, Azerbaijan (CNN) -- An investigator now is saying a bomb was to blame for the subway fire that killed about 300 people and injured 200 others in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku over the weekend.

The investigator, appearing on Azerbaijani state television Monday, said that Saturday's deadly blaze was the result of sabotage and that victims were asphyxiated by an unidentified poison gas.

loading body Authorities began investigating the disaster Sunday and said then they believed it had been caused by a spark from a high voltage cable. But Azerbaijani President Geidar Aliev said Monday he "could not discount" the possibility of sabotage.

Despite the blast, the subway on Monday was filled with commuters as usual. Police patrolled the stations and guarded the city's central mosque as Islamic holy men blessed the victims of the world's worst subway disaster on a second day of national mourning.

Most of the victims were crushed and suffocated when panic broke out in the airless tunnel amid a deadly mix of fire and gas.

Emergency rescue workers battled the fire until early Sunday morning before they began to pull out the dead and injured.

loading body The government in the former Soviet republic had imposed a virtual news blackout on the fire until the investigator's appearance. There have been no pictures of the carnage on television and most channels were off the air.

Officials first blamed the disaster on "outdated Soviet" equipment. Fire officials said Baku's subway cars, which were manufactured in the late 1960s, are susceptible to fire. They said most of the trapped victims were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning from burning materials in the packed carriages.

Witnesses said that sparks flew just after the train left the busy Ulduz station in Baku, the Azerbaijani capital, early Saturday evening.

sad woman "As soon as the train entered the tunnel I saw a flash," said Tabil Guseinov, who was aboard the train. "Then the flames enveloped the train car, there was a sound of breaking glass, and the lights went out."

Officials also speculated that the train's driver should have driven to the next station rather than stopping between stations.

President Aliev has promised victims' families state compensation of 1 million manats, or about $220 each.

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