The death toll in yesterday's Iranian train explosion has risen to at least 295, state radio reported, although other officials gave lower figures.
A senior official in Khorasan Province's Emergency Headquarters, told the radio that 295 people had been killed and 450 injured in yesterday's blast.
But the acting governor of Neyshabur told reporters that about 180 bodies had been recovered by this morning.
The explosion of the runaway train wagons loaded with fuel and chemicals devastated five villages and left a crater about 50 feet deep.
Firefighters battled freezing temperatures and toxic fumes overnight, finally extinguishing the blaze shortly after dawn today.
For miles around the scene, the fumes of the sulphur, petrol, fertilisers and cotton that wagons were carrying made it almost impossible to breathe.
Dozens of people were thought to be trapped in their homes of mud and clay near the train tracks.
AP
