Alexandria, Egypt - Aug 11, 2017
1. Various of rescuers at collision site
2. Various of ruins of train
3. Various of rescuers at collision site
4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Um Abdallah, local resident:
"I was planting in the field, when the train stopped, then the second train came. It was like a bomb. We've kept on screaming so that the whole town would come to help. Dead bodies were everywhere. One woman lost two children in that crash. We brought our trucks to transport victims to the hospitals. If we'd waited for the ambulance, more would have died, the ambulances came hours later. It was a black day."
5. Ruins of train
6. Various of rescuers at collision site
7. Interior of damaged train
8. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Reda Ahmed, eyewitness (with reporter asking question):
"I wanted to help because when the next train crash happens, as my father, mother or brothers could be in it. We help so that God could help us when it's our turn in such hard times."
(Reporter: "Do you think it was big accident?")
"Sure. There was a young girl just as old as my little daughter, and the train fell on her left arm. Her father wanted a knife to cut her arm off to save her. Miraculously we all managed to lift the cart off her. Residents of this town were the first to the rescue."
9. Rescuers at collision site

At least 43 died and more than 120 injured in Egypt on Friday in a train collision in a district called Khorshid in Egypt's coastal city of Alexandria.

Initial investigations indicated that a speeding train coming from the capital Cairo crashed into the back of a stopping train.

The prosecutor general's office is leading the investigations, while the Egyptian government has rushed to the crash site to support the victims.

Rescuers have stayed up all night looking for casualties and clearing the railroad.

Their bigger mission was to lift the debris that has paralyzed trains flow in northern Egypt. The government had to provide bus transportation as replacement for stranded passengers.

Residents of Khorshid, where the collision happened, have also stayed up all night.

"I was planting in the field, when the train stopped, then the second train came. It was like a bomb. We've kept on screaming so that the whole town would come to help. Dead bodies were everywhere. One woman lost two children in that crash. We brought our trucks to transport victims to the hospitals. If we'd waited for the ambulance, more would have died, the ambulances came hours later. It was a black day," said Um Abdallah, a local resident.

Egypt's presidential office announced they have sent EL Sisi's condolences to the relatives of the victims.

The government announced an initial compensation of 2,800 U.S. dollars for the families of the deceased.

A horrific number of train accidents has been reported by Egypt's statistics agency. The number was 1,249 for only last year alone.

"I wanted to help because when the next train crash happens, as my father, mother or brothers could be in it. We help so that God could help us when it's our turn in such hard times," said Reda Ahmed, an eye witness.

"There was a young girl just as old as my little daughter, and the train fell on her left arm. Her father wanted a knife to cut her arm off to save her. Miraculously we all managed to lift the cart off her. Residents of this town were the first to the rescue,” the eye witness added.

Egypt Railroads was established in 1854, one of the world's oldest. It stretches for more than 9,500 kilometers.

It transports 500 million passengers annually and six million tons of goods across the country.

The infrastructure has been decaying for decades, which led to the quite common train accidents. However they are not usually as deadly as Khorshid's collision.

The deadliest was 2002 when more than 350 died in a train fire.

Whenever a tragic railroad accident occurs in this country, Egyptians hope that it would be the last.

In the past decades, several transportation ministers have been sacked after similar incidents, yet Egypt remains to have poor safety records in its railroad network.

Khorshid's collision is yet another reminder that the system needs urgent and comprehensive restructuring.