The death toll from an Alexandria train collision has reached 42, said Sherif Wadei, advisor to the Minister of Health. He added 133 others were injured.
Wadei told MENA that 12 victims were in a critical condition.
The injuries ranged between abrasions, fractures and bleeding, said Wadei, adding that blood bags were available at hospitals of the Ministry of Health for those injured.
All the injured will be treated and compensated in accordance to the degree of their injury, the Minister of Social Solidarity, Ghada Wali told the Middle East News Agency (MENA) on Friday.
She instructed the director of Alexandria’s Social Solidarity Department to attend to the Koam al-Dekka morgue.
According to Wali, the families of each of the deceased will receive LE50 thousand as compensation.
The train crash occurred in the Khurshid area near Sidi Gaber station in Alexandria leaving dozens dead and injured. The accident took place at 1:30 pm, Friday.
Upon inspection of the scene, security sources revealed that the collision occurred between a train coming from Cairo and another coming from Port Said. They crashed a few kilometers from Sidi Gaber station, when the Port Said train stopped from a sudden mechanical failure, leading the Cairo train to crash into it from behind.
Coaches were destroyed and derailed in the collision.
Eyewitness, Khalid Ibrahim, said the residents of Ezbet al-Sheikh al-Soghra village rushed to help the victims of the accident to retrieve them from the wrecked train.
The Directorate of Health rushed 30 ambulances to the scene of the accident, which took around half an hour to arrive at the scene.
Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health, Magdy Hegazi, declared a state of emergency in all Alexandria hospitals and expects the number of casualties to rise.
Edited Translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
