ANSD : Crash, fire at Cairo station kills at least 25

FRI 26 - 4 - 2024

Date: Feb 28, 2019
Source: The Daily Star

Crash, fire at Cairo station kills at least 25

_{Associated Press}
CAIRO: A locomotive crashed into a barrier at the Egyptian capital’s main train station Wednesday, causing its fuel tank to explode and triggering a huge fire, killing at least 25 people, officials said. Railway officials said the single rail car was traveling too fast when it collided head-on with the barrier. At least 47 people were also injured, many of them critically, and officials said the death toll could rise.

Egypt’s public prosecutor said a preliminary investigation indicated the driver stepped off the train to talk to another driver without pulling the hand brake, causing the unattended locomotive to speed off and hit a concrete platform.

Prosecutor General Nabil Sadek said the driver left to fight with another conductor who had blocked his way with the rail car he was driving. “The driver left the rail car without taking any measures to brake it,” Sadek said in a statement.

Egyptian state television said the train driver had been arrested.

The explosion and fire blasted through people on the platform in the busy Ramses Station in downtown Cairo. A surveillance video showed the moment of impact when the car barreled past people walking by who were then engulfed in flames and smoke. Charred bodies lay on the platform, and a man in flames ran down a staircase in panic, according to other photos and videos posted on social media.

Ambulances rushed to the scene and firefighters struggled to get the flames under control.

Witness Ibrahim Hussein said, “I saw a man pointing from the locomotive as it entered the platform, and screaming ‘There are no brakes! There are no brakes!’ before he jumped out of the locomotive. And I don’t know what happened to him.”

Health Minister Hala Zayed said authorities had not been able to identify many of the 20 bodies recovered because they were too badly burned.

The Ramses district is among the busiest and most crowded areas of the Egyptian capital. The state railway agency briefly halted all train traffic and ordered the evacuation of the station. Video from surveillance cameras showed flames ravaging the station’s interior.

One video that surfaced on social media showed men and women carrying bags and personal belongings and walking on the rail platforms as the train car crashed and exploded.

Another showed men and women running and searching for exits after the explosion. A man was seen running back and forth, his shirt on fire, until another man rushed to pour water on him.

The accident triggered an online debate among Egyptians, with many blaming the government for not improving railway services in Egypt, even after a series of deadly accidents. Several noted previous statements by President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi expressing reservations about spending too much money on improving trains, for lack of funds.

Later in the day, Transportation Minister Hisham Arafat resigned his post, according to a statement released by the Cabinet office.

Mohammed Said, head of the Cairo Railroad hospital, said the death toll could rise.

Many of the wounded were in critical condition, mostly suffering severe burns, the health minister said. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli promised “harsh punishment” for the culprits.

Egypt’s railway system has a history of badly maintained equipment and poor management.

Official figures show that 1,793 train accidents took place in 2017 across the country.

In July 2018, a passenger train derailed near the southern city of Aswan, injuring at least six people and prompting authorities to fire the chief of the country’s railways.

“I don’t know when these train accidents will end. ... They told us they got millions of dollars’ worth of new locomotives and trains, and people are still dying because of train accidents,” said Ali Ramadan, a student who suffered burns and injured his foot when he ran into a concrete bench on the platform.

In March last year, Sisi said the government lacked about 250 billion Egyptian pounds, or $14.1 billion, to overhaul the rundown rail system. Sisi spoke a day after a passenger train collided with a cargo train, killing at least 12 people, including a child.

In 2016, at least 51 people were killed when two commuter trains collided near Cairo.

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