Egypt Train Collision Kills 32 Passengers

A collision between two trains killed at least 32 passengers and left more than 100 injured Friday in southern Egypt, a country plagued by fatal rail accidents widely blamed on crumbling infrastructure and poor maintenance

Tahta, Egypt, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2021 ) :A collision between two trains killed at least 32 passengers and left more than 100 injured Friday in southern Egypt, a country plagued by fatal rail accidents widely blamed on crumbling infrastructure and poor maintenance.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi pledged tough punishment for those responsible for the crash, which came as his government wrestles with another major transport challenge, a giant container ship blocking the Suez Canal and causing huge traffic jams at either end.

The health ministry, which gave the casualty toll, said dozens of ambulances rushed to the scene in the Tahta district of Sohag province, some 460 kilometres (285 miles) south of Cairo after the collision.

Surveillance camera footage of the accident seen by AFP showed a carriage being violently thrown into the air in a cloud of dust when a speeding train rammed into another as it rolled slowly down the tracks.

Springs and twisted metal jutted out from the wreckage, as dozens of people gathered around the overturned carriages, an AFP correspondent reported.

Harrowing images from inside one of the carriages posted on Facebook showed men and women screaming for help as they tried to free themselves from the wreckage.

"People are dying. Where are the authorities? Help us," one young man shouted repeatedly.

A video showed another man covered in dust trapped by twisted metal under what could have been the aisle of the carriage.

In other footage, a man is heard urging a middle-aged woman who appears stuck between seats to move forward. She struggles and is heard saying: "Please, my son, help me."Egypt's rail authority said the crash occurred after unidentified passengers had "activated emergency brakes in several carriages" on one of the trains.

A statement said one train hit the last carriage of the other, causing at least two carriages to overturn between the stations of Maragha and Tahta.