Saturday, November 17, 2012

Tragedy: 49 Children killed in train-bus collision

A speeding train crashed into a bus carrying children to their kindergarten in southern Egypt on Saturday, killing at least 47, officials said. Distraught families searched for signs of their loved ones along the tracks in the aftermath of the latest disaster to hit the country's railway system.  The bus was carrying more than 50 children between 4 and 6 years old when it was hit near al-Mandara village in Manfaloot district in the province of Assiut, a security official said, adding that it appears that the railroad crossing was not closed as the train sped toward it.
Dozens of nursery school children were among 49 people killed on Saturday after a train ploughed into their bus in central Egypt, officials said, prompting angry protests from parents and resignations of Egypt transportation minister.
“There are now 49 deaths and 18 injuries,” with almost all of the casualties children, Assiut provincial governor Yehya Keshk told state television.
The bus taking 60 children aged between four and six on a school trip organized by their nursery was struck on a railway crossing in Manfalut, al-Mandara village in Manfalut district in the province of Assiut, central Egypt. The site is 356 kilometers (220 miles) south of Cairo, police said.
The worker manning the level crossing which had been left open was asleep when the bus tried to cross the tracks, Keshk said. "He has been arrested of course."
Parents of the children were staging angry demonstrations near the scene of the horrific accident, demanding the death penalty for those responsible, police said.
Books, school bags and socks of children were strewn along the tracks near the mangled bus, which was carried along the train tracks for more than half a mile. Parents of the missing wailed in horror as they looked for signs of their children.

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