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Several dead, dozens injured as passenger train derails in Egypt

At least 11 people died and around 98 others were injured when the Cairo-Mansura passenger train went off the tracks in the city of Qalyubia, officials say.

Reuters

People gather at the site where train carriages derailed in Qalyubia province, north of Cairo, Egypt on April 18, 2021.

At least 11 people have been killed and about 98 others injured when a passenger train derailed in city of Qalyubia, Egyptian authorities said.

Four train wagons ran off the railway at the city of Banha in Qalyubia province, just north of Cairo, the railway authority said in a statement on Sunday.

Videos on social media purportedly showed wagons overturned and passengers escaping to safety along the railway.

The train was travelling to the Nile Delta city of Mansoura from the Egyptian capital, the statement said.

Around 60 ambulances were sent to the scene and the injured were taken to nearby hospitals.

Salvage teams could be seen searching for survivors and removing the derailed wagons.

It was not immediately clear what caused the train to derail. Prosecutors said they were investigating the causes of the crash.

Public outcry

Last week, at least 15 people were injured when train carriages derailed in the Nile Delta province of Sharqia.

Sunday’s train accident came three weeks after two passenger trains collided in the province of Sohag, killing at least 18 people and injuring 200 others, including children.

Prosecutors said they found that gross negligence by railway employees was behind the deadly March 25 crash, which caused public outcry across the country.

Train wrecks and mishaps are common in Egypt, where the railway system has a history of badly maintained equipment and mismanagement.

The government says it has launched a broad renovation and modernisation initiative.

Egypt's general-turned-president Abdel Fattah el Sisi said in March 2018 that the government needs about $14.1 billion (250 billion Egyptian pounds) to overhaul the run-down rail system.

Hundreds of train accidents are reported every year.

In February 2019 an unmanned locomotive slammed into a barrier inside Cairo’s main Ramses railway station, causing a huge explosion and a fire that killed at least 25 people.

That crash prompted the then-transportation minister to resign.

In August 2017, two passenger trains collided just outside the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, killing 43 people.

In 2016, at least 51 people were killed when two commuter trains collided near Cairo.

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