Seven killed and 112 injured as two trains collide south of Cairo
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Two passenger trains collided in Giza province about 52 kilometers south of Cairo on Sunday, killing at least seven people and injuring 112, Egyptian authorities said.
The National Railways said a train running from Giza to Fayoum province struck the rear of another service, a train from Cairo to Aswan, that was stopped on the same track. The Transportation Ministry said the Fayoum-bound train hit the last carriage of the stationary train. The chief prosecutor’s office said the driver of the Fayoum train was among the dead.
The collision occurred in the al-Ayyat district at about 1:30 p.m., and witnesses said six carriages overturned. The health ministry said injuries ranged from bruises and abrasions to fractures of the limbs, pelvis and vertebrae, and head, facial and chest wounds. It said 45 of the injured had been discharged and seven more were expected to be released.
An early toll from the railway authority put the dead at four and the injured at 88. The figures rose through Sunday as recovery work continued.
Residents of nearby villages, railway workers and first responders rushed to the site and pulled survivors from overturned carriages, witnesses said. One witness said rescuers dug beneath one carriage to reach passengers trapped inside.
President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi said he was following the accident “with great concern” and directed the authorities to conduct an urgent investigation to “hold accountable anyone found to have been negligent.” The prosecutor’s office said its investigators arrived at the scene late Sunday.
Serious accidents are frequent on Egypt’s rail network, which carries millions of passengers each year between Cairo, the Nile Delta and Upper Egypt. Officials and state inquiries have attributed past disasters to neglected maintenance, aging equipment and human error.
No cause of the collision was announced. The investigation ordered by Mr. el-Sisi was under way.