Egypt’s railway chief resigns in aftermath of fatal collision

Four members of train crew detained for questioning as officials investigate

CAIRO— Egypt’s transport minister said Sunday he has accepted the railway authority chief’s resignation over a deadly train crash near the coastal city of Alexandria that killed 43 people and injured many more. Hesham Arafat announced at a news conference after meeting the prime minister Sunday that he had accepted Medhat Shousha’s resignation.

The crash took place on Friday when a train coming from Cairo, Egypt’s capital, crashed into the rear of another that was waiting at a small station in the district of Khorshid, just east of Alexandria. The stationary train had just arrived from Port Said, a Mediterranean city on the

In a meeting with President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on Saturday, Arafat blamed the accident on human error, against a background of heavy reliance on manual operations and the railway system’s poorly maintained infrastructure.

Egypt’s railway system has a poor safety record and accidents due to negligence have killed scores over the years.

Figures recently released by the state’s statistics agency show that 1,249 train accidents took place last year, the highest number since 2009, when the figure was 1,577.

Friday’s accident was the deadliest since 2006, when at least 51 people were killed when two commuter trains collided near Cairo.

In 2002, a massive fire engulfed a train filled with local holiday travellers. That train sped for miles, with flames engulfing one carriage after another, killing more than 370 people.

KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES A train from Cairo crashed into the rear of another train waiting at a station near Alexandria, Egypt, on Friday. northern tip of the Suez Canal, when it was hit. Also Sunday, Egypt’s prosecution ordered the detention of four people, including two...