25 killed, 28 injured in train collision in Egypt

At least 25 people were killed and 28 others injured when a freight train crashed into a mini-bus and a truck near the Egyptian capital of Cairo in the early hours of Monday, the health ministry said. "The death toll may rise but all the victims had been cleared from the scene," Mohamed Fatah-Allah, the health ministry spokesman told state-run Nile News TV. Previous report quoted a security source as saying that at least 29 people were killed in the accident. The train was en route to Giza governorate from the southern city of Beni Suef when it hit a mini-bus, carrying passengers home from a wedding near the town of Dahshur, some 40 km south of Cairo. "Initial reports said the drivers of the vehicles ignored warning lights and chains blocking entry to the crossing, and tried to cross the tracks," Hussein Zakaria, the head of the Egyptian Railway Authority, told TV. The train continued for almost 1 km before stopped, he said. Sixteen ambulances had rushed to the scene to transfer the victims to hospitals, he said, adding that the train driver and his assistants who survived the accident were detained. Railway accidents pose persistent challenge for the Egyptian recurrent governments for its poor maintenance. Last November, a train collided with a school bus in southern Egypt leaving at least 50 children killed. The transportation minister announced his resignation shortly after the tragedy. The worst accident in Egypt's 150-year history of railway was caused by a fire in February 2002, leaving more than 300 people killed.