The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Train strikes barrier in Cairo; at least 20 die
Early indications are that conductors got into a fight.
CAIRO — A train slammed into a barrier at Cairo’s main railway station and exploded Wednesday, sparking a major fire that killed at least 20 people and injured 40.
Hours later, Transportation Minister Hisham Arafat resigned, according to a cabinet statement.
The National Railway Authority said in a statement that the blaze erupted after the train struck a concrete barrier at Ramses Station, in central Cairo. The train’s fuel tank apparently exploded, creating a huge ball of flames that engulfed the platforms and nearby buildings.
Egypt’s prosecutor general said Wednesday evening that a preliminary investigation indicated that a fight between two train conductors caused the explosion. The conductor of the train that later crashed had stepped off it without applying the hand brake to confront another conductor, who was blocking the way with his rail car, Nabil Sadek said in a statement.
“The driver left the rail car without taking any measures to put on the brakes,” Sadek said.
Images on Egyptian televi- sion and social media showed heavy plumes of black smoke rising from the station as ambulances and fire engines arrived. Inside the station, surveillance-camera videos that later circulated on social media revealed the chaos. One video showed a mas- sive ball of flames engulf- ing a platform as passen- gers fled. A man covered in flames is seen stumbling as other passengers try to douse him with water.
“Suddenly everything turned orange,” said Hend Ahmad el-Taher, 30, a teacher, who was in a cafeteria waiting for her train to depart when the explo- sion occurred. “People in flames were running and screaming.”
Egypt’s railway infrastruc- ture has long been neglected, and previous train accidents have been blamed on a lack of investment and poor man- agement of the railway net- work. Arafat had recently asked President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi for more money to rebuild the rail infrastructure.
The Wednesday explosion and the minister’s resignation are likely to renew questions about el-Sissi’s economic priorities. He has spent billions on major projects, including building a new capitol and bolstering the military. But the government has focused little on refurbishing the dilapidated infrastructure or spending on public education and health care in a country where 90 percent of the population lives in poverty.