FORTY-ONE DEAD IN EGYPTIAN TRAIN FIRE

Horowhenua Chronicle, 1 May 1931, Page 8

FORTY-ONE DEAD IN EGYPTIAN TRAIN FIRE

Unnoticed by Driver SPEED PANS HOLOCAUST TRAGEDY OF MOSLEM FETE CAIRO, April 29. Forty-one persons were killed and 41 injured in the worst disaster on record on the Egyptian railways. An express excursion train, crowded with holidaymakers, took fire between* Cairo and Alexandria. The passengers frantically waved garments from the windows in an attempt to catch 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 the oldest rolling stock on the State railways, and the rackety coaches flared like tinder. Indescribable scenes of panic followed. The screaming passengers in three coaches were either suffocated or burned, or chanced jumping out. The line near Benha was strewn with maimed bodies, as many of those leaping out were caught in the wheels and decapitated, or had their limbs torn off. The train 'travelled a considerable distance before a signalman at Benha noticed the flames and set the, signals at danger. The victims were all Egyptians who were going to Cairo for the Airam festival. The dead include ten churLen who were cither trampled on in the packed compartments or incinerated. The fire is believed to have been due to the overheated axle of a third-class rear carriage. The driver has been arrested. The Nazi'leader, Dr, Joseph Goebels, 46 KILLED AND 41 INJURED. Received Friday, 1.30 a.m. CAIRO, April 30. The burning train casualties were 40 killed and 41 injured. Many of those burned are unrecognisable, including ten children. A number of children were fatally injured through their frantic mothers throwing them from the windows.