Dar - es - Salaam — It was death waiting to occur and when it did last Monday, 200 people lost their lives on the spot in Tanzania's worst railway accident in recent times. Dodoma Regional Commissioner, Isidore Shirima, put the number of survivors at about 700 with 371 in hospital with injuries.

By Friday, the death toll had reached 281 leaving the mourning nation bewildered as to what could have really caused the accident. A commission of inquiry has been appointed by the government to investigate the real cause of the accident. Foul play was ruled out.

The train from Tanzania's port of Dar-es-Salaam took off for a trek across the vast country with over 1000 passengers to the lakeshore town of Mwanza, but half-way as it approached the capital city of Dodoma, 300 kilometres from Dar-es-Salaam it met its tragic end.

Reports said that it first failed to climb a hill then stopped and within minutes it rolled back gathering up to a speed of 200 kilometres in reverse per hour.

At that speed, it soon caught up with a Dar-es-Salaam bound goods train and crashed into it.

It is yet to be explained why its breaks failed when it could not climb a hill towards Dodoma. Tanzania railway officials said the crash into a goods train was in a way a blessing in disguise as it would have, at some point derailed most likely at the next town and probably burst into flames to become a rolling inferno with worst consequences.

For about five days, rescuers assisted by cranes tore through a huge mangled pile of steel in search of survivors, but were losing hope of finding any by Friday from an incomprehensible knot of wreckage.

Tanzania's president, Benjamin Mkapa toured the scene on Tuesday with tears glistening his face.

All Africa Conference of Churches General Secretary, Rev. Canon Clement Janda, sent a message of condolence to the bereaved families on behalf of the AACC member churches.