Train collision in Egypt kills seven, injures at least 125

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A collision between two trains south of Egypt’s capital Cairo on Sunday left seven people dead and at least 125 injured, according to authorities. The train conductor was among those killed.

The Health Ministry confirmed the casualty figures, adding that more than 70 injured passengers had been discharged from hospitals after receiving treatment.

The accident occurred in the al-Ayyat district of Giza province, around 52 kilometres south of Cairo. According to the Transportation Ministry, a train travelling towards the southwestern province of Fayoum struck the rear of another train heading to Aswan in southern Egypt.

The Chief Prosecutor’s office said its investigators arrived at the scene late Sunday. An initial inspection suggested that the Giza-Fayoum train hit the last carriage of the Cairo-Aswan train, which was stationary on the same track and moving in the same direction before the collision, officials said.

Train crashes and derailments are relatively common in Egypt, where the railway system has long faced problems involving mismanagement and poor equipment maintenance. The government has announced several modernisation initiatives in recent years.

Ayman Gamal, a resident of Kafr Girza in al-Ayyat, said nearby residents rushed to the scene, rescued survivors and called ambulances. He saw around 80 injured passengers being transported to nearby hospitals. Some passengers trapped inside a carriage of the stationary train were already dead when rescuers pulled them out, he added.

At Al-Wasta Central Hospital in Beni Suef province, where some victims were taken, survivors described scenes of panic. They said passengers were in shock and struggled to breathe because of dust raised by the crash. Residents from nearby villages eventually helped them escape.

Farha Gamal, a passenger on the Fayoum-bound train, said she saw several people who appeared to be dead, while others struggled to find their way out of the carriage. She added that some of the other carriages were severely damaged.

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said in a social media post that he had ordered an immediate investigation into the accident.

The Egyptian Railway Authority said emergency crews and cranes had been sent to the site to remove the wreckage and restore train services to their normal schedules as quickly as possible.

In September last year, a train driver and his assistant were injured when two freight trains collided in the same district.

Egypt’s deadliest railway disaster occurred in 2002, when a fire broke out on an overnight train travelling from Cairo to southern Egypt, killing more than 300 people.