Tanzania train wreck 'deliberate'

Police in Tanzania suspect a train crash that left seven people dead was caused deliberately so that petrol could be stolen from the fuel tanks.

Seven people have been arrested, including the driver of the cargo train and the station master. The initial death toll was thought to have been 15.

In Sunday's incident, a passenger train hit a stationary cargo train near the town of Dodoma, in central Tanzania.

It happened near Pandambili in Dodoma's Mpwapwa District, local media say.

William Lukuvi, Dodoma's regional commissioner, told AP news agency: "Cranes have been ordered to help separate the crumpled wreckage and retrieve bodies."

In 2002, more than 200 people were killed and hundreds more wounded when a freight train collided with a passenger train outside Dodoma - the worst rail accident in the country's history.

Correspondents say most of Africa's railways date back to colonial times.