Bouhalouane train crash

The Bouhalouane train crash was a fatal railway accident that happened at Bouhalouane in Algeria on January 27, 1982[1] at 01:30 and killed 131 people.

A passenger train travelling from Oran to the capital Algiers and consisting of a locomotive and eight carriages stalled on a steep gradient leading to a mountain pass a few kilometres beyond the town of Bouhalouane in the Chlef Province[1] of Algeria. The locomotive was uncoupled leaving the carriages unsecured; the brakes failed on the carriages and they rolled back down the slope to Bouhalouane where they collided with a freight train in the station. The noise woke many of the residents who rushed to the station where they witnessed an 'apocalyptic scene'. The passenger carriages were split open and stacked upon each other; screams of the wounded could be heard. Motorists passing the station were stopped and their cars became makeshift ambulances taking the injured to nearby hospitals. Heavy lifting equipment and cutting torches were used as police and army worked to rescue the injured, illuminated by spotlights. By dawn 100 bodies had been recovered. The final death toll was 131 people, with 200 injured, resulting as Algeria's deadliest rail disaster.