Seven killed in Egypt train crash south of Cairo
A Giza-to-Fayoum service struck the rear of a Cairo-to-Aswan train on Sunday, injuring more than 100 people in al-Ayyat district.
By Rebecca Foster ·
Seven people died and more than 100 were injured when two trains collided in Egypt's Giza province on Sunday.
The crash happened in the al-Ayyat district, roughly 52 kilometers south of Cairo. According to the Egyptian Transportation Ministry, a train traveling from Giza to Fayoum hit the back of another train that was heading from Cairo to Aswan. The impact derailed several carriages, though the ministry did not specify which train left the tracks. One of the train's conductors was among the seven fatalities.
President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi ordered a swift investigation into the incident. He stated that anyone found to be negligent in the crash should be held accountable. Egypt's public prosecutor's office confirmed that investigators are currently working to determine the technical reasons behind the collision.
The state railway authority reported that emergency crews were working to clear the wreckage. Their goal is to restore services on the Cairo-Upper Egypt line, but the authority did not provide a timeline for when the tracks would be open again. Journalists on the scene described the damage as severe. Several carriages were lying on their sides. One end of a train had crumpled into a tangled mass of steel. The end of the other train had been spliced open by the impact and toppled off the tracks into a neighboring farm.
Witnesses and first responders helped lift a victim from the wreckage, placing the body in a black bag. This incident adds to a history of rail accidents in the country. Egypt operates one of the oldest and largest railway networks in the region, where accidents with casualties are common. The government has been investing billions of Egyptian pounds to modernize the system. A similar, though less deadly, collision occurred in the same district last September when two freight trains met, injuring a driver and his assistant. The worst rail disaster in Egypt's history took place in 2002, when a fire on an overcrowded passenger train killed at least 360 people.
