Dozens of children die in Egypt train crash
Relatives call for justice after a passenger train hits a school bus, killing 50 people.
All but two of the dead were children, aged around four to eight, a senior security official said. One woman and a man also died, he added.
The force of the collision, which took place in the city of Manfalut, near Assiut, broke the bus in half and left debris including school bags and text books scattered around the site.
Eyewitness Ahmed Youseef said: “I saw the train collide with the bus and push it about 1 km along the track.”
Mohamed Samir, a doctor at Assiut hospital, said the bodies of many of those killed were severely mutilated, indicating the force of the crash.
They told us the barriers were open when the bus crossed the tracks and the train collided with it. Mohamed Samir
He added: “They told us the barriers were open when the bus crossed the tracks and the train collided with it.”
Assiut Governor Yahya Keshk also said the railway crossing was open when the train hit the bus. He told state television: “The crossing worker was asleep. He has been detained.”
Egypt‘s transport minister Mohamed Rashad has submitted his resignation and President Mohamed Morsi is considering his offer, state media reported.
President Morsi has ordered his ministers to offer support to the families of those killed, Egypt’s official news agency said.
Prime Minister Hisham Kandil has ordered investigations into anyone responsible for the crash as relatives of the victims protested at the scene.
Egypt’s roads and railways have a poor safety record and Egyptians have long complained that successive governments have failed to enforce basic safeguards, leading to a string of deadly crashes.
Earlier this month, at least three Egyptians were killed and more than 30 injured in a train crash in Fayoum, another city south of Cairo. In July, 15 people were injured in Giza, close to the capital, when a train derailed.
