Egyptian Train Hits School Bus, 49 Children Killed A speeding train crashed into a bus carrying Egyptian children to their kindergarten in central Egypt on Saturday, killing at least 49 and prompting a wave of anger against the government in Cairo. Over 50 children between four and six years old were on board when the bus was hit, a security official said, adding that it appeared the railroad crossing was not closed as the train sped toward it. The crash is the worst such tragedy to hit the country since its first freely elected president, Mohammed Morsi, took office last summer, and will likely give ammunition to critics who say he has done little to improve life for ordinary Egyptians. Books, school bags and children's socks were strewn along the tracks near the blood-stained, mangled bus near al-Mandara village in the central Assiut province. A woman who called herself Um Ibrahim, a mother whose three children were on the bus, was pulling her hair in grief. A witness said the train pushed the bus along the tracks for nearly a kilometer (half a mile). Distraught Egyptians searched for signs of their loved ones in the wreckage of a train crash that killed at least 47 people, most of them children near Assiut in southern Egypt, Saturday, Nov. 17, 2012. (AP Photo/Mamdouh Thabet) Close As one man picked up pieces of shattered limbs he screamed: "Only God can help!" Two hospital officials said more than a dozen injured were being treated in two different facilities, many with severed limbs. All officials spoke anonymously as they were not authorized to brief reporters. The carnage prompted grieving families to set up road blocks in the area, preventing Morsi's prime minister from reaching the scene. Some burned logs and fired automatic rifles in the air in denunciation of Morsi, the AP reporter said. Prime Minister Hesham Kandil was greeted by a jeering crowd as he arrived with a detachment of riot police at Assiut's main hospital, where the injured were being treated. Residents of Assiut are traditionally heavily armed and many hold tribal alliances. They have complained that a lack of ambulances and equipment in the area had hindered hospitals' response. In a televised address from his office in Cairo earlier in the day, Morsi said he had tasked the state prosecutor with investigating the crash, which led to the resignation of the transport minister. "Those responsible for this accident will be held accountable," he said. The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's most powerful political force and Morsi's base of support, blamed the crash on a culture of negligence fostered by deposed leader Hosni Mubarak. "It is unacceptable that things remain as they are without drastic treatment," it said in a statement, adding that it recommends a renovation of the entire transport system in order to spare the lives of citizens. Egypt's railway system has a poor safety record, mostly blamed on decades of badly maintained equipment and poor management during the Mubarak era. Accidents due to negligence regularly killed scores over the three-decade rule of Mubarak, who was accused of valuing loyalty over competence in many appointments of senior officials. Widespread corruption has also been blamed for the underfunding of government services, particularly in poor provinces outside Cairo. Opposition activists have accused Morsi of continuing the mistakes of his predecessor by not overhauling the system, and focusing too much on foreign policy while moving slowly to tackle a myriad of domestic problems.