Seven die in Giza rail crash
A collision south of Cairo killed seven people and injured over 100, halting rail traffic to Upper Egypt.
By Kofi Costa ·
Seven people died and more than 100 were injured when two trains collided near Giza, Egypt, on Sunday. The crash forced a halt to rail services between Giza and Upper Egypt. Emergency crews worked through the wreckage to pull out survivors.
Egyptian railway officials said the first train was heading from Giza to Fayoum. It struck the rear of a second train traveling from Cairo to Aswan. The second train was stopped on the tracks when the impact occurred. Several carriages derailed and rolled off an embankment.
Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, the minister of health, stated that treatment focused on head trauma and broken bones. The ministry confirmed that the driver of one of the trains died in the crash. Images from the scene showed carriages split in two. Hospitals in the area were placed on high alert to handle the influx of patients.
President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi ordered a full investigation into the incident. He directed officials to hold any negligent parties accountable. The public prosecutor's office warned that the death toll could rise as rescue operations continued.
The accident occurred between Kafr Ammar and Al-Raqqa stations in Al-Ayyat. This location has a history of rail disasters. In February 2002, a fire on a Cairo to Luxor train killed more than 370 people in the deadliest rail incident in Egypt. Two other crashes in 2009 in the same region also resulted in dozens of deaths.
Cranes were sent to the site to clear the debris and restore the tracks. Public calls for the transport minister to resign emerged on Sunday following the deadly collision.
