EGYPT: An over-crowded Egyptian train turned into a deadly inferno in the early hours of yesterday, leaving at least 373 people dead and hundreds more wounded. Siona Jenkins reports from Cairo
The fire broke out around 2 a.m. as the third-class train travelled from Cairo to the Upper Egyptian town of Luxor.
The blaze is thought to have been caused by an explosion from a gas stove used by passengers to heat food, a common practice on third-class trains where there are no restaurants or cafes.The fire spread rapidly through seven of the train's 11 cars.
Although the carriages were designed to hold 150 passengers they were crowded with families returning to their villages in the south ahead of the five-day Eid al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice) holiday. As many as 300 people were crammed into each carriage.
According to survivors, panic quickly spread through the packed train as the electricity went out and passengers - many of them children - scrambled through the darkness, trampling one another to escape the flames and smoke.
Bars on many of the windows made it even more difficult to find a way out. One charred corpse was later found wedged between the bars of a window.
The blazing train sped on for about 6 km before finally coming to a halt near the town of al-Ayatt, some 76 km south of the capital. Investigators say it is not clear why the emergency brakes were not used sooner.
By the time the train stopped, hundreds had sustained broken bones and head injuries by jumping to escape the flames. At least 40 had fallen to their deaths. All of the victims appear to have been Egyptian.
One of the survivors, Mr Said Fuad Amin, a 22 year-old construction worker, told the Associated Press news agency that everyone was running to escape.
Even though the train was still going fast he pushed himself out as soon as he found a broken window.
"I thought I was going to die anyway, so I jumped," he said, speaking from his bed in al-Ayatt hospital, where he is being treated for a broken hand and possible concussion. Once the flames were finally extinguished the train was reduced to a charred steel shell.
Rescue workers found bodies melted together in piles. One policeman described the wreckage as a scene of "hell". This is by far the worst disaster in the Egyptian railway's 150-year history.
Overburdened and under-funded, with old equipment and poor service, the rail system has seen some serious accidents in the past, but nothing on this scale.
Egypt's prosecutor general, Mr Maher Abdel Wahid, has launched an investigation into the accident and warned that if negligence is discovered "the punishment will be severe".
The following is a chronology of the worst recent Egyptian train disasters:
Feb 13th, 1992 - Forty-three people killed in head-on collision outside local station near Cairo.
April 15th, 1995 - A train and a bus crowded with textile workers collided on level crossing in NileDelta, killing 49.
Dec 21st, 1995 - Seventy-five people killed when train rams into back of another in thick fog.
Oct 18th, 1998 - Forty-three people killed when train fails to stop at buffers in town south-east of Alexandria, ploughing into crowded market square.
Feb 20th, 2002 - At least 373 people killed when fire swept through a crowded passenger train near Cairo.