Egyptian train crash death toll rises to at least 20 - report

Oct 25, 2009, 10:17 GMT

   Cairo - The number of people killed in a train crash in southern Egypt reached at least 20, the semi-official Al-Ahram newspaper reported on Sunday, but another report put the death toll at twice that figure.

Two trains collided in near Ayyat in southern Egypt on Saturday. A train traveling from Giza, just across the Nile from Cairo, to the oasis of Fayum, some 80 kilometres south-west of the capital collided with a second one traveling from Cairo to the southern city of Assiut, police told the German Press Agency dpa.

Rescue workers were still working to pull people from the wreckage. The number of those confirmed dead and wounded in the accident was likely to rise.

   The Ministry of Health had dispatched 80 ambulances to transport the injured to nearby hospitals, Egyptian cabinet spokesman Magdy Radi told dpa.

The independent Egyptian newspaper al-Shorouk quoted eyewitnesses as saying that the number of dead was much higher, reaching at least 40, with at least a further 120 persons injured.

Al-Shorouk quoted an official in the railway authority as saying that the driver of the first train suddenly hit the brakes to avoid hitting a cow. The official added that a technical committee will investigate the cause of the crash.

More than 350 people were killed in February 2002 when a train caught fire near Ayyat, not far from the site of Saturday's accident. Investigators at the time said that fire had been caused by a man using a propane cooking stove on the train.