CAIRO (AP) — A passenger train derailed Tuesday north of Cairo, killing at least two people and injuring 16,…
CAIRO (AP) — A passenger train derailed Tuesday north of Cairo, killing at least two people and injuring 16, Egyptian authorities said. This is the latest in a series of railway accidents in the country in recent years.
The derailment occurred when the train was passing through a station in the town of Qalyub on its way to the town of Menuf in the Nile Delta, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
At least 20 ambulances were sent to the scene and the injured were taken to nearby hospitals, health authorities said.
Videos posted on Facebook after the collision showed crowds of people and emergency services gathering around the cars, which were left upright after the derailment. Other footage shows passengers being pulled out of the wreckage through the windows of the carriage.
In a statement released later, Egypt’s railway authorities said the derailment was caused by driver error.
Train derailments and accidents are common in Egypt, where the railway system has a history of poor equipment maintenance and mismanagement. In recent years, the government has launched numerous initiatives to reconstruct and modernize the railways.
In 2018, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said about 250 billion Egyptian pounds, or $8.13 billion, would be needed to properly repair the North African country’s dilapidated rail network.
In 2021, two trains collided in Tahta, southern Egypt, killing 32 people. Later that year, a train derailed in Qalubiya province, killing 11 people.
Egypt’s worst rail disaster occurred in 2002, when more than 300 people died in a fire on a night train traveling from Cairo to southern Egypt.
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