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updated
March 4, 2002, 4 am
Cairo-Luxor train
disaster
Links
to related stories on the web
 A
week after surviving the train fire, Abdel-Rahim Qenawi slipped under a
train, in a separate accident, "and was killed." Reuters
reports this tragic tale
Investigators
conclude small
passenger stove started train fire, rebutting earlier electric
short theory
New
railway chief says overcrowding
cannot be controlled:
"There is no law that allows the authority to prevent any passenger
from getting into the car, everyone has the right to board and we cannot
object to that."
Tantawi
leads
mass burial prayers
220
bodies identified; mass burial on Sunday..
Saudi
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal donates
$830,000 to families of the dead.
Relative
of victim: "They
leave the trains of the poor ... looking like carts."
BBC:
Electrical
short-circuit was the main cause of the fire; carriages were not
equipped with fire alarms, extinguishers, or emergency brakes or
windows...
US
President Bush: "Laura
and I and all of the American people offer our deepest sympathy and
condolences to President Mubarak, the Egyptian people, and especially to
those families who have lost loved ones"
Mass
burial delayed...
Transport
minister Ibrahim El-Demiery and the head of the state railways both
resign...
President
Hosni Mubarak discusses accountability on state television on Friday: "I
will not allow any effort to hide the truth or cover up any aspect of
what happened, because the calamity is great, the accident grave...
We have ordered competent authorities to conduct a complete
investigation to clearly determine responsibility and to hold
accountable anyone proved to have fallen short in their duties or who
were careless in providing safety."
Cairolive:
Nightmare
train kills 373
AP
and the Washington
Post look at conditions on third class rail.
LA
Times speaks to Giza governor: "Asked whether he was upset at the
lack of fire exits, or the overcrowding, or the decision of the engineer
to keep going, he dismissed such concerns, although he said the
officials obviously cared because they had come to the scene.
When
Abu Leia finished speaking, an overcrowded third-class train passed by
on the southbound tracks. People were standing in the aisles and sitting
in the doorways."
Later, in the same story, a young man says, "The
government should have better safety measures on trains... They take
better care of tourists. We want them to take care of us too."
Families
go to morgue to identify
remains
Front
page of opposition Al-Wafd,
quoted by AP: "Put
those responsible on trial whoever they are... This is more than gross
negligence. We need to know who was responsible and hang them in public
squares and curse them for what they have done to the helpless Egyptian
people."
BBC: Security
forces on alert
Survivor:
"I don't know how I can live with all this death"
AP quotes the Prosecutor general as saying that if his 25
investigators and 45 coroners determined "there
was any kind of negligence... the punishment will be severe."
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