A fiery train crash killed at least 20 people at Cairo's main station on Wednesday (February 27th), AFP reported.
According to Egypt’s Ahram Online, 25 people were killed in the crash.
The train engine appeared to have slammed into the buffers at the end of the track at high speed, sparking a major blaze at the Ramses station and leaving 40 more people injured.
CCTV footage circulating online showed the train's locomotive hurtling into the barrier without slowing down. People walking on the platform were enveloped by smoke.
Ambulances and rescue teams were dispatched to the site, medical sources said.
Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli was quick to visit the scene, promising a tough response.
"Any person found to be negligent will be held accountable and it will be severe," he said.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has expressed his condolences to the families of the victims, also promising "to hold those responsible accountable after conducting the necessary investigations", Ahram Online reported.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian prosecution said in a statement that it has ordered an immediate investigation into the incident.
Egypt was the second country in the world, after England, to have railways. Egypt’s railways are the first in Africa and the Middle East, as they were built on July 12th, 1851, and they started operating in 1854. Unfortunately, railway accidents have recently increased. This means that there are some people who insist on negligence and don’t learn from past lessons. Egypt doesn’t deserve all of this. Egypt’s railways were built by the English occupiers about 170 years ago. Regardless of their purpose, they’re the world’s second railways, after England, and the first in the Middle East and Africa, as noted above. They have been operating relentlessly in silence until they became old and didn’t find a good doctor to restore their lost youth. As a result, they became weak and frail, and after that, successive accidents started to take place. By God, what are you waiting from a facility that is suffering from negligence, mismanagement, indifference?! A facility which hasn’t been maintained or repaired?! When an accident takes place, we rush to treat the results, but ignore the causes, and pray for mercy for martyrs.
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