Egypt Train Accident
Egypt train collision: 32 dead, 108 injured
Cairo/IBNS/UNI:At least 32 people were killed and 108 others suffered injuries as two trains collided in Tahta city of Egypt’s southern Sohag province, some 460 kilometres (285 miles) south of Cairo, on Friday.
According to local media reports, country's Transport Ministry said that the two trains in Upper Egypt's Sohag collided after unknown passengers pulled the emergency valve of the first train, causing it to stop and get smashed by the other one from behind.
Dozens of ambulances were rushed to the accident scene, said media reports.
An Al Jazeera report said three passenger cars flipped over due to the collission. Videos on local media showed wagons with passengers trapped inside and surrounded by debris, it added.
Local people rushed to rescue the passengers and took out several bodies from the compartments and laid them on the ground near the accident site, the report said.
“The trains collided while going at not very high speeds, which led to the destruction of two carriages and a third to overturn,” an unnamed security source was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Reports further said that Ministry of Transportation has launched an investigations into the incident.
Health Minister Hala Zayed is on the way to Sohag to oversee the situation.
"Anyone who caused this painful accident through negligence or corruption, or anything similar, must receive a deterrent punishment without exception or delay," President of Efypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi tweeted, reported media.
Media reports said Egypt has witnessed deadly train accidents over the years, mainly due to its rundown railway system.
In 2002, 373 people died as a fire charred a crowded train south of Cairo and there have been several major accidents since then, an AFP report stated.
In February 2019, a train derailed and caught fire at Cairo's main railway station, killing at least 22 people and injuring 41, it added. The incident had prompted the then transport minister of Egypt, Hisham Arafat, to resign.
Official figures show there have been 1,793 train accidents since 2017 across the country, which has one of the largest and oldest train networks in North Africa, according to Al Jazeera.
In 2018, el-Sisi said there was an immediate need of $14.1bn to overhaul the run-down rail system, it added.
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