Al Ayyat train disaster

22 February 2002: In Egypt at 2 a.m. a passenger train of 11 carriages was running from Cairo to Luxor. In its fifth carriage a cooking gas cylinder exploded and made a fire which spread as the train ran. 7 of its carriages were burnt. 383 people died in the fire or from jumping out. All were Egyptian. The fire was extinguished at Reqqa al-Gharbîya village near Al `Ayyat town in Gîza province. Each carriage should have carried no more than 150, but 300 or more people were in each, because it was the Muslim holy day Bairam. In Islam it was the Hajj time.