A deadly rail crash on the southern approach to Cairo has derailed multiple carriages, leaving four people dead and scores injured, Egyptian officials said.
According to Egypt’s railway authority, the collision involved a train running from Giza to Fayoum that struck the rear of another service travelling south from Cairo to the city of Aswan.
The health ministry reported that an initial assessment showed four passengers were killed. It said 88 injured people were receiving treatment in hospitals in and around the Giza area.
State-owned media had earlier put the number of wounded at 120, without specifying the severity of the injuries.
The health ministry said an initial count put the toll from the crash at four passengers killed
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said he was monitoring the incident “with great concern” and ordered an urgent inquiry aimed at “hold[ing] accountable anyone found to have been negligent,” according to his statement.
The railway authority said emergency teams deployed cranes to clear and lift wreckage from the scene.
Officials also said an investigation had begun into what caused the crash in Giza’s Al-Ayyat area — a location grimly associated with Egypt’s worst rail catastrophe.
Authorities said they had launched an investigation into the cause of the crash
In 2002, more than 370 people died when a fire tore through a train carrying holiday travellers south of Cairo.
In 2009, a series of train crashes in the same area killed dozens more.
With a population of 110 million, Egypt relies heavily on rail travel. Yet the system — one of Africa’s largest — has repeatedly been hit by fatal accidents.
Over the last decade, the government has spent billions of dollars upgrading transport infrastructure, including new highways and high-speed rail lines, though large parts of the rail network remain ageing and not fully overhauled.
