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Egypt train collision kills 32
TAHTA, Egypt, March 27, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – A collision between two
trains killed at least 32 people and left more than 160 injured Friday
in southern Egypt, a country plagued by fatal rail accidents widely
blamed on crumbling infrastructure and poor maintenance.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi pledged tough punishment for those
responsible for the crash, which came as his government wrestles with
another major transport challenge: a giant container ship blocking the
Suez Canal.
Medical reinforcements were routed from Cairo and more than a
hundred ambulances were mobilized to transport the injured to hospital
from the scene in the Tahta district of Sohag province, 460 kilometres
(285 miles) south of the capital.
The health ministry gave an updated casualty toll of at least 32
dead and 165 people hospitalised with injuries, 70 percent of them
fractures.
Dozens of technicians were working through Friday evening to remove
five dislocated and damaged train wagons, an AFP correspondent on the
scene said.
“We were at the mosque then a child came and told us (about the
incident). We heard the collision, so we rushed and found the
carnage,” said one witness, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“The first ambulances arrived around half an hour after the
explosion… there were children who removed (debris) using wooden
ladders,” the source, who spent the day helping the rescue workers,
said.
Surveillance camera footage of the accident seen by AFP showed a
carriage being violently thrown into the air in a cloud of dust when a
speeding train rammed into another as it rolled slowly down the
tracks.
Twisted metal jutted from the wreckage as dozens of people gathered
around the overturned carriages.
Harrowing images from inside one of the carriages posted on Facebook
showed people screaming for help as they tried to free themselves from
the wreckage.
“People are dying. Where are the authorities? Help us,” one young
man shouted repeatedly.
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A video showed another man covered in dust trapped by twisted metal
under what could have been the aisle of the carriage.
“Our train suddenly stopped and a quarter of an hour later, the
second arrived and struck us. I saw it coming, screamed, then found
myself on the ground in great pain,” Kamel Nagi, a 20-year-old
conscript who suffered multiple broken bones, said.
As authorities launched an investigation, Egypt’s rail authority
blamed the crash on unidentified passengers who “activated emergency
brakes in several carriages” on one of the trains.
A statement said one train hit the last carriage of the other,
causing at least two carriages to overturn between the stations of
Maragha and Tahta.
– ‘Deterrent punishment’ –
One of the trains was travelling between the southern city of Luxor
and Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast, while the other was on the
way between Cairo and the southern city of Aswan.
Health Minister Hala Zayed travelled to Sohag to check on the
injured, as President Sisi, who ordered the payment of compensation to
victims and their families, vowed “deterrent punishment” for anyone
found responsible.
Egypt has been plagued with deadly train accidents in recent years.
One of the deadliest was in 2002, when 373 people died as a fire
ripped through a crowded train south of Cairo.
In March last year, at least 13 people were injured when two
passenger trains collided in Cairo, triggering a brief suspension of
rail services nationwide.
At the time, rail managers blamed the crash on signals
malfunctioning in bad weather.
And in February 2019, a train derailed and caught fire at Cairo’s
main railway station, killing and injuring dozens and prompting
transport minister Hisham Arafat to resign.
The following month, Sisi appointed a senior military officer,
General Kamel al-Wazir, to replace him.
– Suez shutdown –
Since taking office in 2014, Sisi has appointed military officers to
several high-ranking positions.
He has repeatedly praised the military’s role in delivering major
infrastructure projects in record time, such as the expansion of the
Suez Canal in August 2015.
The strategic waterway has made headlines since Tuesday, when the
container ship MV Ever Given got stuck across the canal, closing off
the vital shipping lane.
The blockage has caused huge traffic jams at either end of the
193-kilometre (120-mile) long canal and major delays in the delivery
of oil and other products.
An attempt to refloat the vessel failed on Friday, the ship’s
Singapore-based managers Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement said, as
companies were forced to re-route services from the Suez around the
southern tip of Africa, a far longer route.
With Cairo facing crises on two fronts, an Iraq-Jordan-Egypt summit
that was to take place in Baghdad over Friday and Saturday was called
off.
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