Cape Town — South Africa is on standby to send blood to Mozambique, where officials have made urgent appeals after 196 people were killed and 400 people injured in the country's worst rail disaster.
It was revealed yesterday that Saturday's horrific accident occurred after the train's driver unsuccessfully used four large stones to keep a packed passenger train from sliding down a hill.
The accident occurred near the town of Moamba, about 60km north of the capital Maputo.
President Thabo Mbeki expressed sadness at the tragedy.
He said news of the accident had been received with deep shock and a sense of immense sympathy for South Africa's neighbours.
"We express our sincerest condolences to the loved ones of those who died or were injured, and generally to the people of Mozambique," Mbeki said.
Meanwhile, officials have called for urgent blood supplies because Maputo Central Hospital, which is treating the injured, has been dangerously short of blood for months.
The hospital has recalled all doctors on holiday and ordered all medical students to report for duty to help treat the victims.
The SA Blood Transfusion Service said the Department of Health had offered to assist Mozambique with the shortage of blood.
"If Mozambique accepts the offer from the Department of Health, then the request will come from the department to our chief executive officer, and we will see how we can assist.
We are on standby," the organisation said.
On Sunday Mozambican television showed footage of a pile of bodies lying next to the train tracks, and of soldiers and police searching for more victims.
The train, which can hold more than 1 000 people, was popular with Mozambicans heading to South Africa for the weekend to shop.
Most of the dead and injured were thought to be Mozambican.
No South Africans were on the train.
Rescue workers toiled throughout Saturday to free victims who were trapped in the wreckage.
By last night, all the bodies had been removed and the wreckage cleared.
President Joaquim Chissano called the accident a national tragedy and declared three days of mourning.
Flags around the country were lowered to half-mast, and political leaders and civic groups sent messages of condolence to the families of the victims.
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Touring the site of the disaster, Chissano called on Mozambicans to unite in their grief.
Funerals for some of the victims were held in Moamba and several border towns yesterday.
The railway has promised financial assistance to the families of those killed.
Today Mozambican health authorities appealed for people to urgently claim the bodies of their kin as the main mortuary in Maputo struggled to cope with the sheer number of victims, reports Sapa-AFP.
Of the 196 people killed in the train crash, 98 were taken to Maputo central morgue, which can only handle an average of 50 bodies a day, due to an inadequate cooling system.
National health director Alexandre Mangwele said on state radio that many victims had not been claimed and may start decomposing as the morgue's refrigeration was not operating to full capacity.
Some 52 bodies are due to be recovered today for burial, but "the remaining corpses must be identified as quickly as possible, preferably today", Mangwele said.
The hospital has given people until Thursday to collect their dead before a decision is made to dispose of the bodies.
