Up to 80 holidaymakers have been injured and 15, including five children, are in hospital, after a passenger train derailed en route to the Black Sea resort of Adler, in southern Russia.

One of the passenger’s relatives told RT that the crash happened in such a remote area that it took the emergency workers 40 minutes to get to the site. During that time, members of a construction crew, traveling in the last car, which remained on track, began organizing the rescue effort. 

A local resident who rushed to the scene to help told RT that “most of the people did not understand what has happened to them."

“Those who got out helped those that were trapped inside,” Artem Popko said.

None died in the accident, and none of the children is in a critical condition. The youngest of the children is a one-and-a-half years old, another is six, with the rest are aged between 11 and 13 years.

Witnesses claimed the 19-car train with 618 people on board was running behind schedule. Some of the passengers believed there was something wrong with the brakes prior to the derailment, saying the train had to stop to make repairs to fix the problem. 

“At the time of the crash, the train was going fast,” Nataliya Buligina told Komsomolskaya Pravda daily.“Suddenly we felt a jolt and were flying in the opposite direction. Luggage fell on top of us. The light inside the car went off.”

FULL STORY + Video + Pics: http://rt.com/news/train-derailment-russia-injured-757/