At least 19 people have died and more than 100 injured in a train derailment south of Cairo, according to officials.
The official Mena news agency quoted health ministry officials who said 107 wounded were being treated in hospitals near the site of the accident in Giza's Badrasheen neighbourhood over Monday night. They said the number of dead was expected to rise.
The train was taking young recruits from south Egypt to a military camp in Cairo when two carriages went off the rails shortly after midnight in the Giza neighbourhood of Badrasheen, officials said.
More than 60 ambulances were sent to the site of the accident, where rescuers were working to extract survivors and bodies from the twisted heap of metal on the side of the rails.
Prime Minister Hesham Qandeel was met with howls of outrage when he arrived at the scene, with local residents shouting, "You have blood on your hands, Mr. Hesham." His security quickly whisked him away, an AFP photographer said.
The injured have been taken to local hospitals for treatment, the health ministry said.
The accident comes less than two weeks after a new transportation minister was appointed to overhaul the rail system, and just two months after a deadly collision between a train and school bus.
The state-owned Ahram website reported that the 12-carriage train was carrying 1,328 conscripted Egyptian soldiers headed north from Assiut to Cairo.
Roy Hamad Gaafar, a survivor, said he was on board when the last two carriages detached from the rest and derailed.
Images carried on Egyptian satellite channels showed residents using flashlights to help rescuers reach people trapped in the wreckage.
According to media reports, it is the fifth deadly train accident since President Mohamed Morsi was sworn in as Egypt's first Islamist president in June.
Morsi's tenure so far has been marked by political divisions over the role of religion in politics and freedoms, but the latest accident is a further test of how his government will deal with Egyptians' everyday problems.
In a message on Twitter, the president's Muslim Brotherhood said "sincere condolences go out to the families of the victims of the horrific train crash in Badrasheen, we pray for speedy recovery of the injured."
The spokesman of the armed forces also sent condolences on his official Facebook page.
Transport minister Hatem Abdel Latif, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, said an investigation will be launched into the accident.
President Mohammed Morsi named a new transportation minister on 6 January in an effort to improve railway safety. The post had been left vacant in the aftermath of an accident that killed 49 kindgergarten pupils in November 2012 when a speeding train hit their school bus.
Accidents due to negligence regularly killed scores over the three-decade rule of Hosni Mubarak. The railway's worst disaster was in February 2002 when a train heading to southern Egypt caught fire, killing 363 people. Media reports quoting official statistics say rail and road accidents killed more than 7,000 people in 2010.
Egyptians have long complained that the government has failed to deal with the country's transport problems, with roads as poorly maintained as railway lines.
Tuesday 15 January 2013
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/15/egypt-train-crash-army-recruits
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=56452
0 comments:
Post a Comment