Mass funeral for Egypt train victims

The bodies were burned beyond recognition

A mass funeral has been held for more than 100 unidentified victims of an horrific train fire in Egypt which killed 373 people.

Police stood guard at the cemetery walls, fearing overcrowding by mourners, as Egypt's top Islamic cleric Grand Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi led the prayers beside 14 large graves in central Cairo.

The train lacked fire alarms and extinguishers

The bodies, which had been burned beyond recognition, will be put in so-called martyr's graves, reserved for unidentified victims of wars and disasters.

The burial had been due on Saturday, but was postponed to allow relatives more time to identify victims.

Electrical blaze

Local media reports say an electrical short-circuit is now thought to be the main cause of the fire, Egypt's worst train disaster.

Two state-run newspapers - Al-Akhbar and Al-Ahram - said the government's inquiry team has discovered that the fire was not caused by a passenger's cooking stove as was first suggested.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has tried to defuse public anger over Wednesday's disaster by promising to punish anyone found to have been negligent.

Egypt's Transport Minister, Ibrahim al-Demeri and the head of the country's railway authority, Ahmed al-Sherif both resigned on Friday.

The train was packed to twice its capacity when it caught fire shortly after leaving Cairo for Luxor.

The investigators also found that carriages were not equipped with fire alarms, extinguishers, or emergency brakes or windows, Al-Akhbar reported.

The train driver did not realise until too late that the carriages behind him were burning out of control.