Wednesday: An Egyptian rescuer walks next to a burned train near Ayyat.
REQA AL-GHARBIYA, Egypt — A train crowded with Egyptians leaving the capital for a holiday weekend caught fire and sped on in flames for miles Wednesday, killing 372 people, including some who died as they jumped from the burning cars, police said.
The death toll from the train accident, which officials called the worst in decades, was expected to climb to more than 400 as police and recovery workers searched through charred train cars, said civil defense official Lt. Amin Karam.
"There has been nothing in the recent or distant past like this," Ahmed al-Sherif, director of the state-owned Egyptian Railway Authority, said at the scene. "I've been with the railway for 32 years and never seen or heard of an event of this size."
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