CAIRO: Speaking to the country on Saturday early afternoon, Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi has offered condolences to the families of the children who were killed when the bus they were traveling on was slammed into by a train. “On behalf of the Egyptian people, I offer my condolences to family of dead and hope for fast recovery for the injured,” President Morsi told the country as Egypt is in mourning after 50 people, mostly young schoolchildren were killed in the crash. On social media networks in the country, reports are coming in that reveal that some families lost two or three children each in the incident. The bus had been carrying 60 students when it was hit by the train as it was attempting to cross the train tracks near Assiut in southern Egypt. The Minister of Transport has resigned over the incident, local media reported. Eyewitnesses were reported as saying crews were now clearing the area of debris, which included body parts as a result of the crash. Officials said the bus driver had gone onto the tracks just as the train was nearing, which caused the crash. Last week, a train accident near Fayoum left three people dead. Egypt's train system is antiquated and is in desperate need of renovations in order to meet the growing number of travelers who use the service nationwide. According to local reports, the barrier that was supposed to come down to bar vehicles onto the tracks, did not come down, which officials speculate was because the person in charge was reportedly asleep.
