adminA cargo train has derailed in the crowded Nairobi slum of Kibera, the Kenyan Red Cross said. The train crashed into makeshift homes yesterday, trapping scores of people, the organisation said. The Kenyan government’s disaster operations office has tweeted that all of the trapped people had been rescued and that five of them had been taken to hospital.
Al Jazeera’s Rawya Rageh, however, later tweeted from the scene: “The commanding officer on scene tells me it’s not clear if people are trapped underneath the wreckage, we need to lift the wagons to tell.”
Transport Minister Michael Kamau, who was also at the scene, said six people had been taken to hospital so far. “The rescue efforts are under way, we cannot talk of the number of those injured at the moment,” Nairobi Police chief Benson Kibue said.
The Kenya Red Cross tweeted that “efforts are under way to remove the wreckage.” A police officer said they are trying to bring in a crane, according to Rageh.
“It was a very heavy cargo, that’s why it had two engines,” said Rageh of the train that was carrying wheat to Uganda, adding that the weight of the load appeared to be the initial cause of the derailment.
Kibera is one of Africa’s largest slums and is home to an estimated quarter of a million people, according to an NGO that carried out a survey there. But locals suggested that casualties might be lower than initially thought due to people having gone to church or returned to their villages for the holidays.— Al Jazeera
Online Reporter