The carnage prompted grieving families to set up road blocks in the area, preventing Morsi’s prime minister from reaching the scene. Some burned logs and fired automatic rifles in the air in denunciation of Morsi, the AP reporter said.
ASSIUT, Egypt (AP) — A speeding train crashed into a bus carrying Egyptian children to their kindergarten in central Egypt , killing at least 49 and prompting a wave of anger against the government in Cairo.
Over 50 children between four and six 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 the missing wailed as they looked for signs of their children. An Associated Press reporter at the scene said many of the remains were unrecognizable.
