CAIRO — A speeding train barreled into Cairo’s main railway station on Wednesday, crashing into a platform and setting off a fireball that swept through the crowded station, leaving least 25 people dead and dozens more injured, officials said.

Surveillance footage from the station that circulated on social media, showing the crash and graphic images of passengers engulfed in flames, fanned public outrage at the latest disaster on Egypt’s dilapidated and accident-prone rail network.

Hours later, Egypt’s transport minister, Hisham Arafat, resigned. The crash will renew scrutiny of the priorities of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who has promoted sweeping national projects but failed to halt a slide in public services like health, education and transportation.

Footage from one surveillance camera at Cairo’s Ramses station showed a locomotive hurtling past a busy platform, ramming a barrier and setting off an explosion that engulfed the station in flames and smoke.



Footage from another angle showed a wall of fire sweeping through the station, causing passengers to flee. A man covered in flames tumbles down steps as he runs frantically for help. Other passengers douse him with water in an attempt to extinguish the blaze.

The footage could not be independently confirmed, but a kiosk owner on an adjacent platform said it was consistent with what he had witnessed in the aftermath of the crash.

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One woman begged him to kill her, the man added, because her entire body was burned.

The blaze, which consumed nearby buildings and sent clouds of black smoke billowing across central Cairo, lasted about an hour, another witness said. Later, photos of charred bodies, some strewn on the tracks, circulated on social media.

Both men declined to give their names, citing the heavy police presence in the station. State media reported that in addition to the 25 people killed, 50 others were injured.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/27/world/middleeast/cairo-fire-train-station-egypt.html#click=https:///qXjoXpnmlJ