The Manfalut railway accident occurred on 17 November 2012 when a
school bus
A school bus is any type of bus owned, leased, contracted to, or operated by a school or school district. It is regularly used to transport students to and from school or school-related activities, but not including a charter bus or transit bus ...
, which was carrying about 70 school children between four and six years old, was hit by a train on a
rail crossing
A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, overpass ...
near
Manfalut
Manfalut ( ar, منفلوط ', ; ) is a city in Egypt. It is located on the west bank of the Nile, in the Asyut Governorate. The city is at 350 km (230 miles) south of Cairo. In 2006, it had a population of 82,585 people.
Local agriculture i ...
,
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
, 350 km (230 miles) south of the
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
ian capital
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
. At least 50 children and the bus driver died in the crash, and about 17 people were injured. Witnesses reported that barriers at the crossing were not closed when the crash occurred.
After the crash, a number of people began searching along the tracks to find the remains of their children and victims they knew. Additionally, schoolbags and schoolbooks were scattered across the tracks. Police did not arrive until two hours after the accident, and by the time the first ambulance came, most of the children were dead. Afterwards, the families of the victims protested at the crash site.
The Egyptian minister of transportation, Mohammad Rashad Al Matini, and the head of the railways authority resigned after the accident. President