An express train that left Peradeniya at 4.40 a.m. for Colombo derailed on the Colombo-Kandy railway line between the Gangoda and Kadigamuwa stations after an earthslip blocked the track.
A Railway Department official said the derailment happened when the train struck a large mound of earth and a mass of rock that had fallen across the line, according to locomotive operator D. A. P. Sendanayake.
No passengers were injured, the official said. The train was damaged.
The line had recently been restored. The damaged section of track has since been repaired and train services have resumed.
