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Train plows into school bus in Egypt, 50 killed

17 November 2012 17:05 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Fifty people, mostly children, were killed when a train slammed into a school busas it crossed tracks in a city south of Cairo on Saturday, state media and officials said, APA reports quoting Reuters.

All but two of the dead were children, aged around four to eight, said a senior security official inAssiut, near the site. One woman and the bus driver also died, he added.

The bus was broken in half by the force of the crash. Blood was spattered on the front of the engine and school bags and text books, some bloodstained, were strewn around.

Witnesses said barriers at the rail crossing were open when the train hit the bus. Transport Minister Mohamed Rashad and the head of the railways authority resigned, and President Mohamed Mursisaid those responsible would be held to account.

Egypt's roads and railways have a poor safety record and Egyptians have long complained that successive governments have failed to enforce even basic safeguards, leading to a string of deadly crashes.

State media reported that as well as 50 dead, 15 or more people were injured. A medical source said as many as 28 were injured, 27 of them children.

"They told us the barriers were open when the bus crossed the tracks and the train collided with it," said Mohamed Samir, a doctor at Assiut hospital where the injured were taken, citing witness accounts.

Assiut Governor Yahya Keshk also said the crossing was open. "The crossing worker was asleep. He has been detained," he told state television.