Northern Egypt train derailment kills 2, injures 16

PTI, Mar 8, 2023, 9:51 AM IST

A passenger train derailed Tuesday north of Cairo, killing at least two people and injuring 16 others, Egyptian authorities said. It was the latest in a series of rail accidents in the country in recent years.

The derailing happened as the train was travelling through a station in the city of Qalyub on its way to the city of Menouf in the Nile Delta, state prosecutors said in a statement.

At least 20 ambulances were dispatched to the scene and the injured were transferred to nearby hospitals, health authorities said.

Videos of the aftermath of the collision posted on Facebook showed crowds of people and emergency services gathering around the rail cars, which remained upright after the derailing. In other footage, passengers were seen being pulled from the wreckage through rail-car windows.

In a statement issued later, Egypt’s railway authority said the derailment was caused by driver error.

Train derailments and crashes are common in Egypt, where the railway system has a history of badly maintained equipment and mismanagement. In recent years, the government has initiated numerous renovation and modernization initiatives to improve its railways.

In 2018, President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi said some 250 billion Egyptian pounds, or $8.13 billion, would be needed to properly overhaul the North African country’s neglected rail network.

In 2021, two trains collided in the southern Egyptian city of Tahta, killing 32 people. Later that year, a train derailed in Qalyubia province killing 11 people.

Egypt’s deadliest train crash was in 2002, when more than 300 people were killed after a fire broke out in an overnight train journeying from Cairo to southern Egypt.