Eleven people have died and nearly 100 people have been injured after a train derailed and crashed near Cairo.
Four train carriages derailed in Egypt’s Qalioubia province on Sunday, leaving 97 hurt, the health ministry said in a statement.
The train was heading from Cairo to the Nile Delta city of Mansoura and derailed at 1.54pm local time about 40
kilometres north of Cairo, Egyptian National Railways said in a short statement.
The cause of the accident is being investigated, it added.
Footage on social media shows wagons overturned and passengers escaping to safety along the railway after the horrific incident.
More than 50 ambulances took the injured to three hospitals in the province, the health ministry said.
(Image: REUTERS)
The derailing is the latest of several recent railway crashes in Egypt.
Last week, at least 15 people were injured when train carriages derailed in the Nile Delta province of Sharqia.
And at least 20 people were killed and nearly 200 were injured in March when two trains collided near Tahta, about 440 km (275 miles) south of Cairo.
(Image: REUTERS)
(Image: REUTERS)
It’s been reported that members of staff left their cabin before the horror smash on March 26, which sparked national outrage.
Fifteen people were injured earlier in April when two train carriages derailed near Minya al-Qamh city, about 70 km north to Cairo.
Salvage teams could be seen searching for survivors and removing the derailed wagons.
(Image: REUTERS)
(Image: REUTERS)
Egypt’s transportation minister Kamel El-Wazir, a former army general, has faced calls to resign from some Egyptians on social media.
He has rejected these and vowed to keep working on developing the ageing rail network.
The country’s deadliest train crash was in 2002, when more than 300 people were killed after a fire broke out in an overnight service traveling from Cairo to southern Egypt.
