Train crash kills 15, injures dozens in Egypt

By Mohammed Al-Rayes

CAIRO

At least 15 people were killed and dozens injured in a train collision in Egypt’s Nile Delta on Wednesday, according to Egyptian authorities.

The accident occurred when a passenger train collided with a cargo train in the northern Behira province, Mohamed Ezz, a spokesman for the Transportation Ministry, said.

“Fifteen people were killed and 40 others injured in the crash,” he was quoted as saying by the official MENA news agency.
He said the death toll was still preliminary.

Behira security chief Alaa al-Din Abdel-Fattah said the crash took place after the breakage of one trail of the passenger train hit the cargo train.

Egypt’s attorney-general Nabil Sadiq has ordered an immediate investigation into the accident.

Wednesday’s accident comes months after 42 people were killed and scores injured in a deadly train crash in the coastal city of Alexandria in August.

In 2002, more than 350 were burnt to death on a passenger train traveling from Cairo to Aswan in southern Egypt, the country’s worst railway accident.

According to Egyptian authorities, some 722 railway accidents took place in Egypt in 2016.