AI-generated illustration · Source : Reuters' X
AL-AYYAT, Egypt, November 8 – Two passenger trains collided south of Cairo on Sunday, killing at least seven people and injuring 112, Egypt’s health ministry said.
The state railway authority said a train travelling from Giza to Fayoum hit the back of another heading from Cairo to Aswan, derailing several carriages, Reuters reported. The crash happened in the al-Ayyat area of Giza governorate.
Egypt’s Public Prosecution Office said that after inspecting the scene and speaking to eyewitnesses, it had determined that the front of the Giza-Fayoum train crashed into the back of the Cairo-Aswan service, which had stopped on the tracks, the BBC reported. Both trains were travelling in the same direction, the office said.
The driver of the Giza-Fayoum train was among those killed, according to the prosecution’s initial estimates, the BBC said. The prosecution put the number of injured at 114, slightly higher than the health ministry’s figure, and said the final tally was still being counted.
The health ministry said 72 ambulances took part in transport and evacuation, and the injured were taken to Al-Wasta, Al-Ayyat and Atfih central hospitals, CNN Arabic reported. Forty-five patients had been discharged after treatment, the ministry said.
Injuries ranged from bruises and abrasions to fractures of the limbs, pelvis and vertebrae, as well as head and facial lacerations and chest injuries, the ministry said, according to AFP.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said he was following the accident “with great concern” and directed authorities to conduct an urgent investigation to “hold accountable anyone found to have been negligent”, AFP reported. The prosecutor’s office said investigations were under way to determine the technical reasons behind the crash.
Emergency crews were clearing the wreckage to restore services on the Cairo-Upper Egypt line, the railway authority said, without saying how long this would take.
The al-Ayyat area has a long history of rail disasters, including Egypt’s deadliest, when hundreds of people died in 2002 after a passenger train was engulfed in flames, the BBC said.
Source: Reuters’ X; Egypt Ministry of Health via AFP, BBC and CNN Arabic
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