Cairo train crash kills at least 19 new army recruits

A train crash in a Cairo suburb has left at least 19 new army recruits dead and 107 more injured.

The crash has sparked protests at a main train station in Egypt's capital over the government's failure to keep roads and train railways safe, Reuters reported. 

In November, 50 people, many of them children, were killed in a crash between a school bus and a train near Cairo. 

The train was carrying new conscripts of the Egyptian army to a camp in Cairo when one of its carriages detached and crashed into another train, BBC News reported.

The wounded are being treated at hospitals near Giza’s Badrasheen neighborhood, where the crash occurred, and health officials said the death toll is expected to rise further, according to the Associated Press. 

"We have to admit that the railway system is decaying," Transport Minister Hatem Abdel-Latif told Ahram Online. "We will carry out investigations to know whether the accident happened because of defects in the train or rails or because of other reasons." 

Authorities launched an investigation into the crash, and the Egyptian government has offered the victims' families 30,000 Egyptian pounds, or $4,573, as well as compensation to the wounded based on their injuries, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. Egypt's armed forces also offered separate compensation. 

President Mohammed Morsi, who has come under fire for the accident, appointed Hatem Abdel-Latif as the new minister of transportation earlier this month in an effort to improve the country's poor safety record. 

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