Alexandria – Mohamed El Badry and Mohamed Amer:
The Abu Qir internal train in Alexandria suffered a sudden malfunction in the brake operating system, while it was traveling towards the east of the city, which led it to bypass two stations before it stopped, causing panic among the passengers.
A source at the Egyptian Railways Authority in Alexandria stated that train No. 84 of the Abu Qir internal line was shown yesterday evening, Thursday. Due to a sudden breakdown following passing through the Sidi Bishr station, the driver was unable to stop him at the Asafra and Mandara stations, which caused the passengers to panic.
The source explained that the train conductor tried to slow down until the train stopped before it reached the Montazah station. Immediately following the train stopped, the passengers fled from its carriages. Pointing out that the movement of the trains stopped for regarding an hour and a half, until the movement of trains was restarted once more, and that no injuries were observed as a result of the incident.
According to accounts published by a number of passengers of the aforementioned train, the train was traveling normally coming from the side of the Misr station towards Abu Qir, and stopped normally at the stations of Al-Hadra, Al-Dhahiriya, Bacchus, Gabriel, Al-Raml, Victoria and Sidi Bishr, and following that it lost control of it, bypassing two stations until it stopped before reaching the Montazah station. .
One of the train passengers reported in her account that a number of young passengers tried to use the emergency brakes from inside the carriages, and some of them tried to calm the rest of the passengers until it came to a complete stop without any injuries, while panic prevailed among a number of women and children.
