The death toll of the February 29 2008 train fire in Bulgaria reached eight people, Boyan Berov, head of civil protection service in Cherven bryag, told Focus news agency.

Initial reports claimed that at least three people died. Four people had to spend the night in hospital with burns, but their lives were not in any danger.

The train was travelling from Sofia to Kardam on the border with Romania, in Dobrich region. The fire started in a couchette carriage, which had 35 people in it at the time, and then spread to a sleeping coach with 27 people, according to Focus news agency. It broke out as the train was entering the town of Cherven bryag, around midnight, and took more than three hours to extinguish.

Prosecutors from Pleven investigated the scene during the day. Valeri Mirchev, the prosecutor in charge of the probe, said that the bodies of the victims were so badly burnt one could not tell their gender, let alone identify them, and that a DNA analysis would have to be carried out.

The fire most likely broke out after a light bulb explosion, which ignited a curtain and then the fire spread further, Interior Ministry investigators said, as quoted by Dnevnik daily. The other possible cause was someone putting a curtain on fire intentionally, according to Focus news agency.

The incident was the deadliest in a train operated by Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ) since 1992, the company's chief executive Oleg Petkov said.