MOSCOW: At least 20 people were injured after a passenger train derailed in Russia's Far North on Wednesday, authorities said.

The train was going from the city of Vorkuta, above the Arctic Circle, to the port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea in the south of the country.

It derailed near the small town of Inta in the Komi Republic, which has a harsh climate and is scarcely populated.

Vladimir Uyba, the head of the Komi republic, said there 215 passengers onboard the train, adding: "20 people were injured, three in a serious condition."

He said the five last carriages of the train derailed, but authorities did not immediately give a reason for the cause of the accident.

Uyba said he was flying out to the scene of the accident.

Images published by Russian state media showed several carriages lying on their side in a ditch by a forest.

It takes almost five days for the Vorkuta-Novorossiysk train to complete its journey.

Transport accidents are not uncommon in Russia, but less so on railways, with the country, the largest in the world, having a massive rail network.

Since Moscow launched its Ukraine offensive, Russia has battled a wave of sabotage acts on its railways, used by the army to transport equipment to Ukraine.

 -AFP