Collision between two trains in Egypt’s Giza kills at least 7 and injures over 100
Crash occurrs some 50 km south of Cairo; Sissi orders investigation, says anyone found negligent should be held accountable
At least seven people were killed and over 100 were injured when two trains collided Sunday south of the Egyptian capital, Cairo, the Egyptian chief prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
The crash occurred in the al-Ayyat district in Giza province, about 52 kilometers (32 miles) south of Cairo, when a train traveling to the southwestern Fayoum province crashed into the rear of a train heading to the southern province of Aswan, according to the Egyptian Transportation Ministry.
One of the trains derailed, it said, but did not specify which.
It also said one of the train’s conductors was among those killed.
The state railway authority said a train traveling from Giza to Fayoum hit the back of another heading from Cairo to Aswan, derailing several carriages.
Emergency crews were clearing the wreckage to restore services on the Cairo-Upper Egypt line, the railway authority said, without giving any indication of how long that would take.
Several carriages lay on their side, AFP journalists at the scene reported. One end of a train had crumpled into a mangle of steel, while the end of the other — spliced open in the impact — had toppled off the tracks into an adjacent farm.
First responders and passersby helped lift one of the victims out of the wreckage in a black body bag, AFP images showed.
President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi ordered a swift investigation and said anyone found negligent should be held accountable, according to a separate statement.
Egypt’s public prosecutor’s office said investigations were underway to determine the technical reasons behind the crash.
Egypt has one of the oldest and largest railway networks in the region, and accidents involving casualties are common, though the government has been investing billions of Egyptian pounds to modernize the network.
Last September, a train driver and his assistant were injured after two freight trains collided in the same district.
In the country’s worst-ever rail disaster, a fire tore through seven carriages of an overcrowded passenger service in 2002, killing at least 360 people.