Derailed train kills dozens in Egypt

AT LEAST 45 people were killed yesterday when a train jumped its tracks at a north Egyptian station and ploughed into people on the platform, Egypt's official news agency said.

About 100 people were injured, authorities told the Middle East News Agency.

The train was travelling from the port of Alexandria to Kafr el-Sheik when it derailed in the station of Kafr el-Dawar, a town about 19 miles southeast of Alexandria, the Interior Ministry said. The train went off the rails when the driver changed tracks "at high speed". The locomotive and the first two passenger cars toppled over and careered through people and kiosks on the platform, the ministry said.

Egyptian television showed a crane moving towards one of the overturned train cars as scores of riot police fended off hundreds of wailing people. One train car appeared to have crashed into small buildings.

A senior railway official, Mahmoud Marei, said the driver was speeding because free-riding passengers had tampered with the brakes system between the cars, the news agency reported. Such trains are usually packed with hundreds of commuters and it is not uncommon for people to hitch a ride between the cars. Egyptian television said the injured had been admitted to at least five hospitals.

AP, Cairo