Two train drivers and their assistants have been detained following Friday’s fatal accident that killed at least 41 people and injured more than 140 others in Egypt’s coastal city of Alexandria, state news agency MENA reports.
The crew will be held for 15 days while an investigation into the fatal collision is conducted. Blood and urine samples were taken from one driver to determine if he was under the influence of drugs.
Transport Minister Hesham Arafat told President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in a meeting that the accident was the result of human error, but he did not elaborate.
Passengers on an incoming train, which slowed down at the scene of a fatal rail collision the day before, take a glance at the outlying wreckage by the tracks in the area of Khorshid on the outskirts of Egypt's Mediterranean city of Alexandria from the day before, on August 12, 2017. /AFP Photo
The Egyptian Railways Authority said that a train traveling from Cairo hit a train waiting at a small station in the district of Khorshid, at about 2:15 p.m. local time. The idle train had recently arrived from the Mediterranean city of Port Said.
It did not however say what caused the accident, but said that experts would investigate.
Transport ministry officials said the crash could have been caused by a malfunction in one of the trains that caused it to stop on the tracks.
Images of the crash site broadcast on state television showed several carriages had derailed as a result of the collision and that one train had partly keeled over. The footage also showed bodies covered with bed sheets lying near the tracks while medics worked to move the dead and injured to ambulances. Locals also rushed to the tracks to help the crash victims.
