41 BURNED TO DEATH

Grey River Argus, 1 May 1931, Page 5

41 BURNED TO DEATH

ON BLAZING TRAIN Driver Arrested (Aus. & N.Z. Cable Assn.) CAIRO, April 29. Forty-one are dead and forty-one injured in the worst disaster on the Egyptian railways. An express excursion train, crowded with holiday makers, caught fire between Cairo and Alexandria. The passengers frantically waved garments from the windows i n an attempt to attract the driver’s attention, but the train went on at full speed, fanning the flames which spread with terrific rapidity. The train was made up of some of i the oldest roiling stork on the State railways. The rackety coaches flared pike tinder. There was indescribable scenes of i panic among screaming passengers in three of the coaches, who were either suffocated, burned, or they chanced jumping out. The line near Benha was strewn with maimed bodies. Many 'of those leaping out were caught by the wheels and decapitated, or had I limbs torn off. | The train travelled for a considerable distance before the signalman at Benha noticed the flames, and set signals at danger. The victims were ad I Egyptians going to Cairo for the Bair|am festival The dead inc’ude ten children who • were either trampled on in the packed compartment's or incinerated. The fire is believed to be due to an overheated axle of the third class rear carriage. The driver of the train has been arrested. _____