Thirty-two people were killed and 165 others injured Friday, when tw trains collided in the Tahta district of Sohag Governorate 460 kilometres south of the Egyptian capital Cairo.
President Abel Fattah el Sisi ordered the formation of a panel of the Administrative Supervisory Authority, the Military Technical College and the College of Engineering to investigate the accident.
The president said he followed the accident and ordered state agencies to be present to send him reports about developments on the ground around the hour.
“I followed this painful accident closely,” the president wrote on Facebook. “The pain we experience will but make us more determined to end this type of accidents.”
He said those causing the accident would be punished appropriately.
The president also sent condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in the accident.
The General Prosecution sent also a team of investigators to the site of the collision to investigate the accident.
تابعت عن كثب الحادث الأليم الذي شاهدناه اليوم بتصادم قطارين في محافظة سوهاج.
إن الألم الذي يعتصر قلوبنا اليوم، لن يزيدنا إلا إصرارا على إنهاء مثل هذا النمط من الكوارث
١/٣— Abdelfattah Elsisi (@AlsisiOfficial) March 26, 2021
Action was quickly taken to transfer the injured victims to hospitals in the governorate, the ministry of health said.
The injuries of the victims ranged from critical to mild, Assistant Minister of Health Khaled Megahid said.
He added that Sohag hospitals have sufficient blood for the victims.
“We have also sent additional amounts of blood to the hospitals to cater to the needs of the victims,” Megahid said.
Soon after the accident occurred, Minister of Health Hala Zayed formed an operations room to follow up on developments and assess the needs for the medical response.
The minister also travelled to Sohag to check the response of hospitals in the governorate to the accident as well as ensure that the victims were receiving proper care, Megahid said.
Megahid noted that the Ministry of Health had sent a large number of medical teams to Sohag hospitals to respond to the needs of the injured victims.
This came after Chief Prosecutor Hamada el-Sawy ordered an investigation into the tragedy.
The cabinet also formed a panel of a number of ministries to follow up on official response to the accident.
The Ministry of Transport said the accident happened when a train travelling from the southern city of Luxor to the northern coastal city of Alexandria broke down near Sohag.
In a statement the ministry blamed unidentified people for “sabotage”, causing the train to break down.
A speeding train on the same line collided with the first train, causing a human toll, the ministry said.
The government has invested tens of billions of pounds on the upgrade of the railways in recent years to reduce the likelihood of accident.
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