KENYA: Goods train derails in a Nairobi slum killing and trapping residents

Record ID: 360628

  • Title: KENYA: Goods train derails in a Nairobi slum killing and trapping residents
  • Date: 22nd December 2009
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF TRAIN ON ITS SIDE/ CROWD WIDE SHOT OF KIBERA WITH DERAIL CARRAGES NEXT TO SHANTIES VARIOUS OF KIBERA RESIDENTS HELPING WITH RESCUE EFFORTS MORE OF OVERTURNED TRAIN VARIOUS RED CROSS STAFF CARRYING A BODY (SOUNDBITE) (English) RED CROSS OFFICIAL DAVIS OKOKO SAYING: "At around 1115 this morning there was a derailment by one of the trains that was bound for Nairobi, it's a cargo train, and then some of the wagons overturned into the adjacent slums settlement." PEOPLE WALKING ON RAILWAY TRUCKS HOUSEHOLD GOODS OUTSIDE FLATTENED HOUSE (SOUNDBITE) (English) RED CROSS OFFICIAL DAVIS OKOKO SAYING: "The Kenya Red Cross working with authorities has been able to recover 2 bodies and 2 other people were rescued from the place and taken to two different hospitals." POLICEMAN STANDING ON WRECKAGE
  • Embargoed: 6th January 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes,Transport
  • Reuters ID: LVA5M1IYWXTGLNGUD9U0B5F5L3KN
  • Story Text: A goods-train derailed and landed on shanties in Kibera slum outside Nairobi on Monday (December 21) claiming two lives and trapping others.
    "The Kenya Red Cross working with authorities has been able to recover 2 bodies and 2 other people were rescued from the place and taken to two different hospitals," said Red Cross official Davis Okoko at the scene.
    Thousands of local residents swarmed around the crash-site, impeding rescue operations. At one stage police chased onlookers away with batons, but they soon returned to help find trapped residents.
    "There is a young man we have tried to remove, he was calling out to us from under the wreckage, it's a young man we know here in the neighbourhood. But we did not have the tools to remove him, if you can see my hand is even injured from trying," said one man.
    Overcrowding in Kibera is a huge problem and more than 800,000 people live on 250 hectares.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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