Iranian death toll rises to 295

• Train carrying chemicals explodes and kills hundreds

• Many had gathered to watch fire on train being extinguished

Key quote "The smoke rose like the mushroom cloud in Hiroshima." - Fereydoun Saki, ambulance driver.

Story in full THE sickening smell of sulphur hung in the air and the corpses of dead farm animals littered the countryside.

Only tattered clothing and patches of blood remained as evidence of the human carnage that had occurred just hours before, when a huge chemical explosion ripped through Neyshabur in northern Iran, killing and injuring hundreds of people.

By last night, the Iranian authorities said the death toll had risen to 295.

"You see this whole field here, it was filled with corpses," said Ali Kariznouiaround, who was visiting a nearby pilgrimage site when the train explosion blew him off his feet. "It was horrifying."A train, loaded with petrol, fertiliser and sulphur, had apparently caught fire at about 4am local time, after coming loose and becoming derailed at the station near Neyshabur. Firefighters arrived to put the blaze out and seemed to be succeeding.

By mid-morning, curious residents and even high-level officials, including the mayor and local military commander, had gathered when suddenly, the train exploded with such force that it shook windows 100km away in the city of Mashad.

"The smoke rose like the mushroom cloud in Hiroshima," said Fereydoun Saki, an ambulance driver in Neyshabur.

The blast turned the train and nearby rescue vehicles into smouldering twists of scorched metal. It shattered windows for miles around and killed a man in a lorry sitting some 300 yards away.

The explosion spewed a coat of yellow sulphur across the countryside, raising a stench that could be smelt for several miles downwind.

Among those killed were local political and military officials overseeing the sleep-deprived firefighters who had been battling a blaze of uncertain nature since early in the morning. Children and local residents were also watching. "The whole city is shocked by this accident," said Saeed Kaviani, the editor of Sobh-e-Neyshabur, a local newspaper. "Official vehicles mounted with loudspeakers are roaming the city, calling for volunteers to donate blood."

Dozens of people remained buried under the rubble of their homes in the villages, he added.

Anger and confusion erupted as rescue workers attempted to dig for corpses and look for survivors, with people demanding to know why the area had not been evacuated before the blast.

"This is a scandal," said one villager, Hassan Nejat, in front of a group of security police in riot gear. "They should have brought the security here before the explosion, not after."When asked about the dead, Ali Kariznoui, a Red Crescent relief worker, said: "They’re all burned and unrecognisable."

The village of Dehnow-Hashemabad was hardest hit by the blast. A clutch of women sat in the ruin of a mud-brick house, weeping inconsolably.

"My brother’s wife, my uncle, my brother, my nephew are all missing. We can’t find any of them," said Yagholamhassan Pourdehghian who rushed here from a nearby town to find his relatives. "There’s no-one from this village to speak for it."