Image: Google Maps

LUBUMBASHI: Up to 33 people were feared dead Sunday in the Democratic Republic of Congo after a freight train carrying fuel plunged into a ravine.

The UN's radio Okapi spoke of 33 fatalities with others injured or burned in the accident that occurred in the sprawling mineral-rich province of Katanga, which is the size of Spain.

"Up until now, the toll is eight dead and several injured. The toll could be significantly higher," Jean-Marie Tshizainga ? the minister of mines of Lualaba province ? told AFP.

The train ? in which the victims were travelling illegally ? was running between the country's second city Lubumbashi to Luena in Katanga.

The train was transporting 13 oil tankers and derailed while climbing a slope near the station of Lubudi. It fell into a ravine and the tankers caught fire, Radio Okapi said.

"It's a freight train that derailed and it wasn't supposed to be carrying passengers. If there were people on board, we consider them to be illegal travellers," Sylvestre Ilunga Ilukamba ? a senior official from the national railway company ? said.

Katanga has witnessed several deadly train accidents.

In 2014, a freight train derailed killing 74 people and injured 163, according to officials but the Red Cross said up to 200 corpses had been buried.

The national news agency a month later spoke of 136 deaths.

Another train accident in July 1987 near the Zambian border killed 150 people after crashing into a truck.