Egypt’s Toukh train accident: One of victims was carrying his ‘burial shroud’

CAIRO - 19 April 2021:  An Egyptian rescue man found a bag with burial shroud in the belongings of one of the victims of Toukh train accident that claimed the lives of 11 people and injured 98 others on Sunday.

 

An Egyptian local resident, who was participating in rescuing victims of the accident in the city of Toukh, said that he found a plastic bag that contains a burial shroud and belongs to one of the train accident victims, Sada El-Balad newspaper reported.

 

Mustafa, the volunteer, was shocked after he found the shroud with perfume in a bag that belongs to one of the victims as if this victim knew his fate while traveling.

 

A total of 11 people were killed and 98 injured in the Sunday derailment of a train in Toukh, the Delta, where most of the injuries are fractures and segmental wounds.

 

According to a statement by the Health Ministry, 60 ambulances were dispatched immediately to the site of the accident and those injured were transferred to the nearby Benha University Hospital, Benha Educational Hospital, and Qalyub Specialized Hospital. Three other critically injured victims were transferred to Nasser Medical Institute to undergo surgeries.

 

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has ordered an investigation into the derailment of four carriages of the train on the way from Cairo to Mansoura city in Qalyubia, the Delta. Thus far, it is unclear how the four carriages were separated from the rest of the train.

 

Sisi also requested that the victims be compensated swiftly. Meanwhile, Minister of Solidarity Neveen el-Kabbaj visited the site of the accident, vowing to dispense compensation and provide social and psychological care to the victims, as well as to reunite them with their families as soon as possible.

 

This is the third train accident took place in a month. On Wednesday, a train derailed in Sharqia governorate, which was also bound from Cairo to Mansoura, but no deaths occurred. On March 26, two trains collided in Sohag, Upper Egypt, resulting in dozens of casualties. Eight railway employees have been detained for trial in the Sohag case.