Saudi Arabia: 35 passengers hurt in derailed train

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – A Saudi civil defense official says a train derailment has injured 35 passengers, one critically, on the kingdom's lone passenger line.

Captain Mohammed al-Hamadi told reporters that the accident took place Wednesday on a train going from the eastern port of Dammam to the capital Riyadh. He says the seriously injured passenger was taken to a hospital by a helicopter, and the accident is being investigated.

The first railway in modern Saudi Arabia, the Hejaz railway from Jordan's border to Medina, was opened in 1908, but was shut down in 1915.

The current line, inaugurated in 1951, was initially run by Saudi oil company, Aramco, but subsequently transferred to the state and since 1968 has been operated as a public corporation and was extended to the capital, Riyadh.