Al Ayyat train disaster

The Al Ayyat train disaster happened at 02:00 on the morning of 20 February 2002 on a passenger train of eleven carriages, running from Cairo to Luxor. In its fifth carriage a cooking gas cylinder exploded and created a fire which spread as the train ran. Seven of its carriages, all third class, were burnt almost to cinders. The official figure given by officials at the time was of 383 people dead, all Egyptian. However, considering that 7 carriages were burnt to the ground and each carriage was packed with at least double the maximum carrying capacity of 150, this figure is considered by many to be a great underestimate. The dubious nature of the given number of deaths also stems from the fact that there was no proper passenger list, so accounting for those missing was almost an impossible job at the time. As well as this, the carriages were so badly burnt and the fire so intense that a huge number of corpses had simply been turned to ash.As there was no means of communication between the driver and the rear carriages, the driver did not know of the fire until about 2 hours after the fire had begun and so many people who attempted to flee from the overcrowded carriages were killed in the jump. Many leading Egyptian figures have commentated that the official figure of 383 dead is grossly inaccurate and was an attempt to lessen the damage done to the reputation of the government in the eyes of the Egyptian people. Many consider a figure of around 1000 dead to be closer to the actual number of dead.

See also

* List of rail accidents
* Egyptian National Railways

External links

* [http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/africa/02/20/egypt.train/index.html Horror on Egypt fire train (CNN.com)]