Two trains crashed on Friday in southern Egypt, the newest in a collection of lethal accidents on the nation’s troubled railways.
Egyptian authorities reported on Saturday that at the least 19 folks had been killed in the crash and 185 injured, revising preliminary counts of the lifeless and injured provided on the day of the accident.
Somebody apparently activated the emergency brakes on the passenger practice and it was rear-ended by one other practice, inflicting two automobiles to derail and flip on their facet, Egypt’s railway authorities mentioned. The passenger practice was headed to the Mediterranean port of Alexandria, north of Cairo, the assertion mentioned.
Video confirmed twisted piles of steel and passengers coated with mud trapped inside — some bleeding and others unconscious. Bystanders eliminated the lifeless and laid them on the bottom close by.
One passenger was heard shouting on the video, “Assist us! Individuals are dying!” A feminine passenger gave the impression to be the other way up, squeezed beneath the seats, and was crying, “Get me out, boy!”
WATCH | Dozens killed after 2 trains crash in Egypt:
Greater than 100 ambulances had been despatched to the scene within the province of Sohag, about 440 kilometres south of Cairo, Well being Minister Hala Zayed mentioned, and the injured had been taken to 4 hospitals. Accidents included damaged bones, cuts and bruises.
Two planes carrying a complete of 52 docs, largely surgeons, had been despatched to Sohag, she informed a information convention within the province, accompanied by Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly.
Rail system has historical past of mismanagement
President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi mentioned he was monitoring the state of affairs and that these accountable would obtain “a deterrent punishment.”
“The ache that tears our hearts at this time can not however make us extra decided to finish any such catastrophe,” he wrote on his Fb web page.
Egypt’s rail system has a historical past of badly maintained tools and mismanagement, and official figures mentioned there have been 1,793 practice accidents in 2017.
In 2018, a passenger practice derailed close to the southern metropolis of Aswan, injuring at the least six folks and prompting authorities to fireplace the chief of the nation’s railways. The identical yr, el-Sissi mentioned the federal government wanted about 250 billion Egyptian kilos ($20 billion) to overtake the rail system. These remarks got here a day after a passenger practice collided with a cargo practice, killing at the least 12 folks.
A yr earlier, two passenger trains collided simply exterior Alexandria, killing 43. In 2016, at the least 51 folks had been killed when two commuter trains collided close to Cairo.
Egypt’s deadliest practice crash was in 2002, when greater than 300 folks had been killed after hearth broke out in a practice travelling from Cairo to southern Egypt.