Train hits bus full of kids in Egypt; dozens killed - Detroit Free Press

ASSIUT, Egypt -- A speeding train crashed into a bus carrying Egyptian children to their kindergarten in central Egypt on Saturday, killing at least 49 and prompting a wave of anger against the government in Cairo.

More than 50 children between 4 and 6 years old were on board when the bus was hit, a security official said, adding that it appeared the railroad crossing was not closed as the train sped toward it.

The crash is the worst such tragedy to hit the country since its first freely elected president, Mohammed Morsi, took office last summer, and will likely give ammunition to critics who say he has done little to improve life for ordinary Egyptians.

Books, school bags and children's socks were strewn along the tracks near the blood-stained, mangled bus near al-Mandara village in the central Assiut province. Parents of missing kids wailed as they looked for signs of their children. A witness said the train pushed the bus along the tracks for nearly half a mile.

Two hospital officials said more than a dozen injured were being treated in two different facilities, many with severed limbs. All officials spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

Prime Minister Hesham Kandil was greeted by a jeering crowd as he arrived with a detachment of riot police at Assiut's main hospital, where injured people were being treated. Residents of Assiut are traditionally heavily armed and many hold tribal alliances. They have complained that a lack of ambulances and equipment in the area had hindered hospitals' response.

In a televised address from his office in Cairo, Morsi said he had tasked the state prosecutor with investigating the crash, which led to the resignation of the transport minister.

The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's most powerful political force and Morsi's base of support, blamed the crash on a culture of negligence fostered by deposed leader Hosni Mubarak.

Egypt's railway system has a poor safety record, mostly blamed on decades of badly maintained equipment and poor management during the Mubarak era.