Over 50 killed as one train rams into another in Egypt

More than 50 people have been killed and 30 others injured when a passenger train at full speed rammed into a stationary train on the outskirts of Cairo, official said today.

The trains were travelling on the same track and were headed toward Assiut and Aswan, a major tourist attraction in the south. Suddenly, the first train stopped and the second, full of passengers, rammed into it from behind in Jirza village, 70 kms southwest of Cairo last evening.

The first train had stopped to avoid running over a cow which was on the track and no warning signal was given to the second train travelling on the same line. Ten minutes later the second train arrived at full speed and crashed into the first train, an eyewitness said.

Authorities stopped announcing number of fatalities when they had reached 14 but the MP of the constituency Ali Al-Saudi said that they have crossed 50 and around 30 injured, some of them seriously. No foreigners were reported among the casualties.

Eye witnesses said some survivors are twisted in the wreckage and their limbs are stuck under the wreckage. They have been pleading with the authorities to send in military forces with their equipment in order to remove the wreckage and save survivors.

Dozens of ambulances rushed to the scene, with rescue workers trying to use a crane to lift one wagon from on top of the other in the hope of finding bodies in the wreckage.