Egypt appointed Sayed Ibrahim Mohamed Salam as interim chief of the National Railway Authority on Monday, one day after the resignation of the authority s director following a train collision in Alexandria that killed at least 41 people and injured 179.
Salam, who was the deputy head of the railway authority s safety and quality department, was appointed by Transportation Minister Hisham Arafat, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported.
On Sunday, Arafat accepted the resignation of Medhat Shousha following the disaster.
On Friday afternoon, a train travelling from Cairo to Alexandria crashed into the rear of another train en route to Alexandria from Port Said. The stationary train was at Khorshid Station when the crash occurred.
Earlier on Sunday, the administrative prosecution suspended eight railway officials in relation to the incident. Meanwhile, prosecutors in Alexandria ordered the detention for 15 days of the drivers of the two trains, state-run news agency MENA reported.
Several deadly railway crashes have taken place in Egypt in years.
In 2012, a train ploughed into a school bus south of Cairo, killing 50 people, mostly children.
The country s worst train disaster took place in 2002, when a fire swept through a passenger train, killing some 360 people.
