Accident on Casablanca to Fez Rail Line

News reaching The View from Fez confirms that an accident took place at 1.35pm on the Casablanca to Fez railway line. Early reports are unclear as to the cause but we can confirm there have been injuries and at least one fatality

At three pm the ONCF (the railway authority) issued the following statement :

"On August 27, 2014, to 1:35 p.m., train No. 125 Casa ensuring liaison - Fez has emergency stopped at the entrance of the station Zenatta following its derailment.

A device was immediately set up by the ONCF for taking care of passengers, all of which are free.
Humans and technical resources have also been mobilized to restore normal movement of trains and an investigation was opened to determine the causes of this incident. ONCF provides its apologize to customers for any inconvenience caused." - ONCF statement

The statement suggests that all the passengers were rescued, yet photographs and video on social media contradicts this. The French language magazine TelQuel tried to contact the ONCF but reports that they were "unable to do so".

The causes of the accident are not yet known, but according to a technician employed by ONCF and quoted by the news site Rue20, poor rails including bolts, "that were too loose" would be a probable cause of the derailment of the train.

UPDATES:
The latest information is that the cause of the derailment was a collision between the passenger train and a freight train carrying coal. Media sources say that one person is dead and that between 20 and 100 people may have been injured.

Later reports bring the injury toll down to between 15 and 20.

There was at least one fatality

We will update the information as it comes to hand.

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