Two technicians were injured Tuesday when a huge fire broke out in a tank car of a freight train transporting diesel from Cairo to Minya.
The tank car caught fire when the train was at Samalout city.
Civil Protection Forces put out the fire after it had spread through two wagons.
The incident caused the suspension of south and northbound railway traffic, said Mayor of Samalout city Gamal Qenawy, adding that one of the two wagons was completely destroyed by the blaze.
Egypt has seen high numbers of train-related accidents in recent years, including crashes, fires and collisions at railway crossings. 2002 saw one of the worst train fires on record in Egypt. More than 360 people were killed when a fire spread the length of a train heading from Cairo to Luxor, burning trapped passengers and causing others to jump to their death from the windows of the moving train.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
