EGYPT: A day after the worst rail disaster in their country's history Egyptians were asking how fire spread through the doomed train so quickly and killed so many.
"This is more than gross negligence. We need to know who was responsible and hang them in public squares . . ." an editorial in the opposition al-Wafd newspaper said yesterday.
Fire broke out on the Luxor-bound train about 60 km into its journey early on Wednesday. It is thought to have started when a passenger's small butane stove exploded, although some survivors said the train was too crowded to set up stoves and suggested a short-circuit was responsible.
The third-class train, described by some survivors as little better than a cattle-car, was crammed to double its capacity ahead of a national holiday.
Unaware of the blaze, the train driver sped on for several kilometres, wind whipping through the glass-less windows and fanning the flames. Desperate passengers scrambled in darkness to escape the inferno, and 40 jumped to their deaths.
Even after the train stopped, the flames burned on for several hours, destroying seven of the train's 11 cars and leaving at least 370 people dead and 65 injured. The heat from the fire was so intense that bodies were literally melted together. Journalists at the scene said rescue workers had to sever limbs to remove the corpses.
The harrowing eye-witness accounts and sight of bereaved family members arriving at Cairo's central morgue to try to identify the charred remains of their loved ones have cast a dark shadow over the five-day Eid al-Adha holiday, usually a joyous celebration.
An investigation into the cause of the disaster has begun and the Social Affairs Minister, Mr Amina el-Gindy, has said €565 in compensation would be given to the families of each person who died, and €188 to the injured.
The measures failed to satisfy opposition politicians, however.
"We are talking about a bad history (of train accidents) during the past 10 years," said Mr Muhammed Mursi, leader of the opposition Islamist bloc in parliament. "It seems that security regulations are not (followed) on our trains." According to the state-owned al-Gomhuriya newspaper, rail accidents have left 6,000 dead and 121,000 injured over the past decade. "We need to make a parliamentary committee. . . we cannot leave it only to the government to make its own report; this needs to be investigated thoroughly and honestly," Mr Mursi said.