Maher Abass Saudi Gazette CAIRO – Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi ordered an investigation into a horrific accident in which 50 people, mostly children, were killed when a train slammed into a school bus as it crossed tracks in a village south of Cairo Saturday. “I have decided to refer the relevant officials to the public prosecution for swift investigations in order to identify those responsible,” the president said in a televised statement, adding that he has accepted the resignation of Minister of Transportation Mohamed Rashad El-Metini and head of the Railway Authority Mostafa Qenawi. The school bus was carrying 60 children, reportedly aged between four and six years old, when it was hit by the train as it passed over the railway crossing at Manfalout village in Assiut region. All but two of the dead were children, Egypt's Ministry of Interior confirmed. One woman and the bus driver also died. Assiut Governor Yahya Keshk said the crossing was open. “The crossing worker was asleep. He has been detained,” he told state television. Egypt's Prosecutor General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud tasked a committee to inspect the accident site. Acting director of the Railway Authority Hussein Zakaria told Al-Ahram Arabic language news website that families of the school children gathered at the location of the collision were preventing railway workers from removing the wreckage from the track. “People are currently blocking the road, some are collecting the remaining body parts,” Osama Seddik, an eyewitness at the scene, told Ahram Online. According to Seddik, the families in the village allege that the railway crossing guard was asleep when the bus carrying the children drove over the track. He also said that police only arrived around 9 a.m. although the accident occurred two hours earlier. He added that only one ambulance was sent as a first response to the accident. “By the time they sent a well-equipped ambulance, the children had died,” added Seddik. The bus was broken in half by the force of the crash. Blood was spattered on the front of the engine and school bags and text books, some bloodstained, were strewn around. Officials said the level of destruction and mutilation made it difficult to count and identify the bodies. – With agencies
