Vatican City (Fides Service) - Pope John Paul II sent a message of condolence to the Iranian authorities after the train accident on 18 February in which hundreds of people lost their lives. In a telegramme, signed on behalf of the Pope by Cardinal Angelo Sodano the Pope’s Secretary of State, the Pope commends the souls of the victims to God and says he hopes the grieving families may receive all the assistance necessary from the authorities and from society and he invokes God’s blessing on the survivors and the families.
The accident happened when a runaway train carrying sulphur, fuel and fertilizer caught fire and then exploded killing at least 295 people, many of them fire fighters. The accident took place near Neyshabur in the north eastern province of Khorasan. About 450 people with injuries, some in grave conditions, were taken to hospitals in Neyshabur and Mashhad.
(Agenzia Fides, 20/02/2004)

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	See Papal telegramme in French