TAHTA, Egypt (AP) – Two trains crashed on Friday in southern Egypt, killing at least 32 people and injuring 165, officials said in the latest in a series of fatal accidents on the country’s railways.
Apparently, someone activated the emergency brakes on the passenger train, and it was terminated by another train, causing two cars to derail and roll over on their side, Egyptian railway authorities said, although Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly later added that no cause has been determined. The passenger train was headed for the Mediterranean port of Alexandria, north of Cairo, railway officials said.
The video showed twisted piles of metal with dust-covered passengers trapped inside – some bleeding and others unconscious. Passers-by removed the dead and placed them on the ground nearby.
A passenger was heard shouting in the video: “Help us! People are dying! ”A female passenger appeared to be upside down, squeezed under the seats and shouting,” Get me out of here, boy! “
Hazem Seliman, who lives near the tracks and heard the accident, said initially that he thought the train had hit a car. Upon arriving at the scene, he said he found the dead and wounded on the ground, among women and children.
“We carry the dead and put the wounded in the ambulances,” he said.
More than 100 ambulances were dispatched to the site in Sohag province, about 440 kilometers (270 miles) south of Cairo, Health Minister Hala Zayed said, and the wounded were taken to four hospitals. The injuries included broken bones, cuts and bruises.
Two planes carrying a total of 52 doctors, mostly surgeons, were sent to Sohag, she added at a news conference in the province, accompanied by Madbouly, who added that a military plane would bring those in need of special surgery to Cairo.
Chief Prosecutor Hamada el-Sawy was on the scene to investigate the accident, he said.
“The (rail) service has been neglected for decades to a point that has made it very outdated and extremely dangerous,” Madbouly told reporters. “We spent billions to update the railroad, but we still have a long way to go to complete all the work needed.”
The government will pay the equivalent of $ 6,400 as compensation for each family that had a relative killed, Madbouly said, while the wounded will receive between $ 1,280 and $ 2,560, depending on how badly they have been injured.
President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said he was monitoring the situation and that those responsible would receive “a dissuasive punishment”.
“The pain that tears our hearts today cannot help but make us more determined to end this type of disaster,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
Egypt’s rail system has a history of poorly maintained equipment and poor management, and official figures say there were 1,793 train accidents in 2017.
In 2018, a passenger train derailed near the southern city of Aswan, injuring at least six people and prompting authorities to fire the country’s railway chief. In the same year, el-Sissi said the government needed around 250 billion Egyptian pounds ($ 14.1 billion) to reform the rail system. These statements were made the day after a passenger train collided with a freight train, killing at least 12 people.
A year earlier, two passenger trains collided outside Alexandria, killing 43. In 2016, at least 51 people died when two trains collided near Cairo.
The most deadly train accident in Egypt was in 2002, when more than 300 people died after the fire of a train traveling from Cairo to southern Egypt.