Cairo, Nov 18 (IANS) At least 27 people were killed and 32 injured when a freight train crashed into a mini-bus and a truck near Egypt's capital Cairo in the early hours of Monday, the head of the Ambulance Authority said.
"All the victims had been cleared from the scene," Ahmed el-Ansari told Xinhua, adding that rescue teams remained at the scene for further search operations, but the death toll may rise as some of those injured were in serious condition.
A previous report had 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 state-run Nile TV.
The train continued for almost 1 km before it 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.
However, state-run al-Ahram newspaper website quoted the crossing workers as saying that "the warning and the red signals were broken", and adding that they attempted to use the chains for closing the track but failed as the train was coming at a high speed.
Meanwhile, the train driver and his assistants asserted the crossing was open and that they sounded dozens of warning sirens but no one responded, al-Ahram added.
"There were no employees at the crossing and all the lights on both sides were completely off," Nawal Hamdy, a 42-year-old housewife who lost four brothers in the accident, told Xinhua.
She said her husband was still missing and two other relatives were in serious condition.
"There are 45 relatives of us in the mini-bus coming from the wedding party, and the accident happened when the truck coming from the opposite side crashed with the train at almost 1 a.m. local time (11 p.m. GMT)."
Egypt's interim Prime Minister has expressed his condolences to the victims and has called for urgent investigation into the reasons and holding those responsible accountable.
Giza governor Ali Abdel Rahman has decided to pay 5,000 Egyptian pounds (about $725) to compensate the families of each of those killed and 2,000 pounds to the injured.
Monday's accident took place shortly after train services resumed across the country after being halted following the dispersal of two main camps of ousted president Mohamed Morsi's supporters in Cairo and Giza in mid-August.
The worst accident in Egypt's 150-year history of the railways was caused by a fire in February 2002, leaving more than 300 people dead.
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