Blast derails Russian freight train - reports

A bomb exploded on a railway track in Russia's Dagestan province, derailing a freight train just days after suicide bombers killed 12 people in the region, Russian news agencies are reporting.

Nobody was hurt in the blast, according to Reuters.

"At 4:05 am (local time), there was an explosion on the tracks near the village of Pervomaiskoye, derailing eight carriages of a goods train," a source in the region's security services told the Interfax news agency.

A passenger train was due to pass along the track two hours later. It has been halted while the tracks are repaired, AFP reported.

The explosion left a 3.5-metre-wide crater on the railbed and damaged 300 metres of tracks.

- NZHERALD STAFF