Death toll rising after two trains collide in Egypt
- 7 years ago
At least 37 people have been killed and over 120 injured after two trains collided in Egypt’s coastal city of Alexandria.
One eyewitness said the two trains mounted into the air “forming a pyramid” after they slammed into each other at the suburban station of Khorshid.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered authorities to establish who was responsible for the crash, which left bodies strewn on the ground around wrecked carriages.
The collision at 2:15 p.m. (1215 GMT derailed the locomotive of one train and two cars of the other, the Egyptian Railway Authority said.
As rescue teams pulled dead and injured from the damaged rail wagons, public prosecutor Nabil Sadek ordered an urgent investigation.
A railroad switching error most likely caused the crash, a security source said without giving further details.
Egyptians have long complained that successive governments failed to enforce basic safeguards for the railways, leading to a string of fatal crashes.
In 2012, a train ploughed into a school bus south of Cairo and killed 50 people, mostly children, inflaming public anger over Egypt’s antiquated transport network.
In Egypt’s worst train disaster, a fire tore through seven carriages of an overcrowded passenger train in 2002, killing at least 360 people.
One eyewitness said the two trains mounted into the air “forming a pyramid” after they slammed into each other at the suburban station of Khorshid.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered authorities to establish who was responsible for the crash, which left bodies strewn on the ground around wrecked carriages.
The collision at 2:15 p.m. (1215 GMT derailed the locomotive of one train and two cars of the other, the Egyptian Railway Authority said.
As rescue teams pulled dead and injured from the damaged rail wagons, public prosecutor Nabil Sadek ordered an urgent investigation.
A railroad switching error most likely caused the crash, a security source said without giving further details.
Egyptians have long complained that successive governments failed to enforce basic safeguards for the railways, leading to a string of fatal crashes.
In 2012, a train ploughed into a school bus south of Cairo and killed 50 people, mostly children, inflaming public anger over Egypt’s antiquated transport network.
In Egypt’s worst train disaster, a fire tore through seven carriages of an overcrowded passenger train in 2002, killing at least 360 people.