CAIRO — At least 25 people have been killed and 50 injured in a fire at Cairo’s main train station, which ignited after after a train crashed into an end-of-track bumper at Cairo’s main train station.
The BBC reports the collision caused the locomotive’s fuel tank to split open, setting the platform and nearby structures afire. Video posted by local media from a security camera in the station shows the train hitting the bumper at high speed, engulfing the platform area in a huge fireball. Other footage shows people running from the explosion, some with their clothes on fire.
Reuters reports the accident occurred at platform 6 of the busy Ramses station in downtown Cairo. The news agency quotes an eyewitness, Ibrahim Hussein, as saying, “I saw a man pointing from the locomotive as it entered the platform, and screaming, ‘There are no brakes! There are no brakes!’ before he jumped out of the locomotive. I don’t know what happened to him.”
Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli, in a visit to the scene, vowed there would be severe punishment for anyone found to be negligent, the BBC said. It also reported that Transport Minister Hisham Arafat resigned hours after the crash.
If Ramses Station had been configured with a wye for trains to reverse from to the platforms, this tragedy would have been avoided. The speeding train would have been diverted at the wye to avoid the station.