A fight between two train conductors on Wednesday unleashed a speeding, unmanned locomotive that slammed into a barrier and exploded in the Egyptian capital’s main railway station, killing at least 25 people, authorities said.
Railway officials said the single locomotive collided head-on with the buffer stop, causing a huge explosion and fire.
At least 47 people were also injured, many of them critically, and officials said the death toll could rise.
Photo: AFP
The deadly blaze blasted through people on the platform in the busy Ramses Station in downtown Cairo.
A surveillance video showed the moment of impact when the locomotive barreled past men and women walking by, and engulfed them in flames and smoke.
Charred bodies lay on the platform and a man in flames ran down a staircase in panic, other photographs and videos posted on social media showed.
Egyptian Prosecutor General Nabil Sadek said investigators determined the locomotive’s conductor had left his car to fight with another conductor whose car was blocking his, but the conductor left without putting on the brakes and the other car began moving backward, freeing the locomotive, which then gathered speed and hit the barrier, exploding.
“The driver left the car without taking any measures to brake it,” Sadek said in a statement.
Sadek put the death toll at 20, while health officials said at least 25 people were killed and dozens more were injured in the crash and ensuing fire. Some of the bodies were burned beyond recognition and DNA tests were carried out to determine identities.
The driver of the car has been questioned and Sadek said the investigation was continuing.
The deadly accident prompted Egyptian Minister of Transportation Hisham Arafat to resign his post, a statement released by the Cabinet office said.
Ramses District is among the busiest and most crowded areas of Cairo. The state railway agency briefly halted all train traffic and ordered the evacuation of the station.
The accident triggered an online debate among many Egyptians, with many blaming the government for not improving railway services, even after a series of deadly accidents.
Several noted previous statements by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi arguing about spending billions on improving trains.
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 crashes and explodes.
Another showed men and women running and searching for exits after the explosion. A man is seen running back and forth, his shirt on fire, until another man rushes to pour water on him.
Mohammed Said of Cairo Railroad hospital said at least 25 were killed, but that the death toll could rise.
Many of the wounded were in critical condition, mostly suffering severe burns, Egyptian Minister of Health and Population Hala Zayed said.
Egyptian Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli vowed harsh punishment for those behind the accident.
With much pomp and circumstance, Cairo is today to inaugurate the long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), widely presented as the crowning jewel on authorities’ efforts to overhaul the country’s vital tourism industry. With a panoramic view of the Giza pyramids plateau, the museum houses thousands of artifacts spanning more than 5,000 years of Egyptian antiquity at a whopping cost of more than US$1 billion. More than two decades in the making, the ultra-modern museum anticipates 5 million visitors annually, with never-before-seen relics on display. In the run-up to the grand opening, Egyptian media and official statements have hailed the “historic moment,” describing the
‘CHILD PORNOGRAPHY’: The doll on Shein’s Web site measure about 80cm in height, and it was holding a teddy bear in a photo published by a daily newspaper France’s anti-fraud unit on Saturday said it had reported Asian e-commerce giant Shein (希音) for selling what it described as “sex dolls with a childlike appearance.” The French Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) said in a statement that the “description and categorization” of the items on Shein’s Web site “make it difficult to doubt the child pornography nature of the content.” Shortly after the statement, Shein announced that the dolls in question had been withdrawn from its platform and that it had launched an internal inquiry. On its Web site, Le Parisien daily published a
China’s Shenzhou-20 crewed spacecraft has delayed its return mission to Earth after the vessel was possibly hit by tiny bits of space debris, the country’s human spaceflight agency said yesterday, an unusual situation that could disrupt the operation of the country’s space station Tiangong. An impact analysis and risk assessment are underway, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said in a statement, without providing a new schedule for the return mission, which was originally set to land in northern China yesterday. The delay highlights the danger to space travel posed by increasing amounts of debris, such as discarded launch vehicles or vessel
RUBBER STAMP? The latest legislative session was the most productive in the number of bills passed, but critics attributed it to a lack of dissenting voices On their last day at work, Hong Kong’s lawmakers — the first batch chosen under Beijing’s mantra of “patriots administering Hong Kong” — posed for group pictures, celebrating a job well done after four years of opposition-free politics. However, despite their smiles, about one-third of the Legislative Council will not seek another term in next month’s election, with the self-described non-establishment figure Tik Chi-yuen (狄志遠) being among those bowing out. “It used to be that [the legislature] had the benefit of free expression... Now it is more uniform. There are multiple voices, but they are not diverse enough,” Tik said, comparing it
RSS