Deputy Mayor demands investigation into Saturday's metro accident

YEREVAN, April 3. /ARKA/. The deputy mayor of Yerevan Tigran Avinyan said today that construction workers blamed for causing an accident at Yerevan metro (subway) on Saturday should be brought to strict accountability

Debris were reported to have fallen on Saturday afternoon on a section of the subway tracks from the Sasuntsi David to the Zovavar Andranik station when the workers were demolishing the wall of a nearby flour mill's bunker.

For several hours, only one direction of the track was open for trains, and rescue and subway workers had to work through the night to remove the debris. For a little less than a day (until Sunday morning), the subway worked in emergency mode.

"This is an exceptional, extraordinary case, which could have resulted in casualties. We have to take a tough approach and it could have caused the train to derail and there would have been casualties," Avinyan told a meeting of the Council of Elders, urging the police to investigate the incident accordingly.

According to him, the tragedy was avoided due to the vigilance of the train driver who was going in the opposite direction. He saw the dust and the damaged wall and informed the dispatcher.

According to Babken Sedrakyan, director of the Yerevan subway, the facility has been operating normally since Sunday morning.

"Repair work with cables continues, which does not interfere with the work of the transportation facility," Sedrakyan stressed. -0-