President Mohamed Morsi visited victims of the Badrashin train crash at Maadi Military Hospital on Tuesday afternoon amid a heavy security presence.
According to the Al-Ahram Arabic news website, Morsi arrived in a military helicopter.
At a brief press conference held at the hospital, the president expressed his grief and promised that the injured will receive the needed treatment.
“This is sad day for each Egyptian, I send my condolences to the families of martyrs who were on their way to fulfill their national duty and my prayers to the injured for speedy recovery… yet the condolences will never bring back the lost souls.”
A 12-carriage train carrying 1328 Central Security Forces conscripts was en route to Cairo from Upper Egypt when one of its cars – carrying around 200 soldiers – derailed on Monday night, hitting a goods train parked outside a storage depot.
This is the second tragic train accident to take place in Egypt since Mohamed Morsi became president.
In November, 51 school children were killed when their bus was hit by a train as it drove through a railway crossing in the Assiut village of Manfalout, Upper Egypt.
President Morsi was severely criticised for not commenting on the Assiut accident until six hours after it took place.
Activists reminded the president of his stance towards a similar accident in 2002 in the Giza governorate village of Al-Ayyat which killed 18 people. Morsi, an MP at the time, vehemently criticised the response of Egypt’s former prime minister Atef Ebeid and ultimately held him responsible.
Ahram
