BanglaPress Desk: Seven people were killed and at least 112 injured following a collision between two trains south of Cairo, the capital of Egypt. The victims include the conductors of both trains.
In a statement, the office of Egypt’s Public Prosecutor confirmed that the accident occurred on Sunday.
In a separate statement, the country’s Ministry of Transport reported that the incident took place in the Al-Ayyat district of Giza Governorate, approximately 52 kilometers south of Cairo. One of the trains—which was heading toward the southwestern governorate of Faiyum—was struck from behind by the second train, which was bound for the southern governorate of Aswan.
Late Sunday night, the Public Prosecutor’s office announced that investigators had arrived at the scene. Officials stated that preliminary observations indicate the accident occurred when one train collided with the rear carriage of a Cairo-Aswan train; both trains were traveling in the same direction on the same track.
Train derailments and accidents are relatively frequent in Egypt, a country with a long history of mismanagement and poor maintenance of its railway infrastructure. In recent years, however, the government has announced modernization initiatives aimed at improving the rail network.
Ayman Gamal, a resident of Kafr Girza village in the Al-Ayyat area—where the accident took place—recounted that local residents rushed to the scene immediately after the collision to rescue survivors and summon ambulances.
Gamal noted that he saw approximately 80 injured individuals being transported to nearby hospitals by ambulance. He added that several passengers had become trapped inside a carriage of one of the trains; by the time they were reached, they had already perished.
In a post on social media, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi stated that he has ordered an investigation into the accident, and that the probe is already underway. The Egyptian Railway Authority has stated that emergency rescue teams and cranes have been dispatched to the accident site to clear the wreckage and restore train services as quickly as possible. Last September, a collision between two freight trains in the same district left a train driver and his assistant injured.
The deadliest train accident in Egyptian history occurred in 2002, when a fire broke out on a night train traveling from Cairo toward southern Egypt, claiming the lives of more than 300 people.
Source: AFP, Reuters
BP/SP
.jpg)
