Egypt’s Prosecutor-General Nabil Sadek on Thursday ordered the detention of six people for four days pending investigation of their involvement in a deadly train crash at a Cairo station on Wednesday morning which killed 22 people.

Those detained include the drivers and drivers’ assistants of the two trains involved in the crash, as well as a worker tasked with switching junctions and a manoeuvring operator on one of the trains.

According to Sadek’s statement on the crash at Ramses station in central Cairo, one train was on its way to a train yard when it was struck by a second train.

The driver of the first train left it unattended, without turning off its engine, to speak with the other driver, who was already working on disengaging his train from the other.

When the two trains disengaged, the now-unmanned train moved at maximum speed towards the railway station until it collided with a concrete barrier at the end of the line and burst into flames.

The Ministry of Health has said that the death toll from the accident and resulting blaze reached 22 on Thursday after two of the injured died in hospital.

An estimated 41 people were injured in the events.

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly accepted the resignation of Transport Minister Hisham Arafat on Wednesday.



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