Two passenger trains crashed this morning in Egypt, killing at least 58 people and injuring 143, according to the Egyptian Minister of Health.
The accident happened at around 7am at the Qalyoub railway station, where commuter trains connect and run south to Cairo, 12 miles away. One train, travelling at around 50mph (80km/h) slammed into the rear of a slowly moving train after it passed through a stop sign, according to police at the scene.
Reports of casualties varied. A security source said 80 people had died and 163 were injured, while the state news agency MENA quoted the Egyptian Minister of Health, Hatem el-Gabaly, saying that 58 had died.
The front part of the onrushing train lay crumpled while mangled carriages from both trains lay on their sides or on the edge of a cornfield next to the train tracks.
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Shoes and blood-soaked clothing littered the station’s platform. A man’s lifeless and bloodied forearm with a watch was visible emerging from a crushed car.
A witness said those on the platform saw the disaster approach: “The first train was stopped. We looked and saw the other train coming from behind, screeching,” said Khalil Sheikh Khalil. “We kept saying: ‘Driver, driver, a train is coming.’ So the (train) driver moved up 15 metres, and while he was moving, the two trains impacted.”
Mr Khalil told Reuters that the engine of the faster-moving train burst into flames on impact.
A resident of Qalyoub resident living near the train tracks who assisted in the rescue effort and the removal of bodies from the train said that most of the passengers were men ranging in age from 20 to 50.
“I carried so many dead people, many of them were just body parts, my own clothes were soaked in blood,” said Raslan Abdel-Aziz, an armed forces mechanic.
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One passenger, Eid Mohammed Saber, said he was asleep when the trains crashed. The 37-year-old police officer, whose clothes and skin were covered in blood, said he awoke to people screaming and climbing over each other to escape.
“I thought I was dying,” he said.
Egypt has a history of serious train accidents, which are usually blamed on poorly maintained equipment. Many of those incidents have occurred in the Nile Delta, north of the capital.
The most recent accident, in February, saw 20 people injured when two trains collided at a Nile Delta station. Egypt’s worst train disaster, in February 2002, killed 363 people.