Egypt train collision south of Cairo, Digi Mart USA News (Al-Ayyat, Giza, Egypt): A rail collision south of the Egyptian capital killed at least four people and injured 88, reigniting debate over the safety of Egypt’s rail network.
Two trains collided on Sunday south of Cairo, causing several cars to derail, according to authorities. A train traveling from Giza toward Fayoum struck the rear of another train heading south from Cairo toward the city of Aswan, rail authorities said.
All of these locations are major tourist destinations.
According to an initial tally from the Ministry of Health, the accident killed four passengers, and 88 people are currently being treated for injuries at hospitals in the Giza region. At the crash site, several cars, some reduced to wreckage, lay overturned.
One end of a train was a heap of scrap metal, while the other end, ripped open by the impact, had tipped off the tracks into a neighboring farm. Rescuers and passersby were seen carrying a victim in a black body bag.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said he was following the situation “with great concern” and had ordered authorities to conduct an urgent investigation so that “all those whose negligence is proven are held accountable.” Authorities said they had opened an inquiry into the causes of the accident, which occurred in the Al-Ayyat area of Giza, the site of the worst railway disaster in Egypt’s history.
In 2002, more than 370 people were killed in a fire that broke out aboard a train carrying vacationers south of Cairo. In 2009, several rail collisions in the same region left dozens dead.
Egypt’s 110 million people depend heavily on rail transport, but the network, one of the largest in Africa, has experienced numerous fatal accidents. Over the past decade, Egypt has invested billions of dollars in modernizing its transport infrastructure, including new highways and high-speed rail lines.
However, it has not yet renovated a large part of its aging rail network.
