Eight passenger cars and a dining car went off the tracks Thursday night near the city of Chita, 5,600 kilometers southeast of Moscow, Itar-Tass said. No casualties were reported.
The engineer heard a loud click and saw a bright flash next to a rail junction just before the locomotive and the cars went off the tracks, the news agency said.
It quoted officials at the Emergency Situations Ministry as saying the derailment was due to "a mine planted on the railway by criminals."
The accident disrupted traffic on the rail line between Moscow and the Far East. Normal traffic was expected to be restored by Friday night, Itar-Tass said.
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