BREAKING: 32 people are killed and more than 60 injured after two trains collide in Egypt
- Two passenger trains crashed into each other in the province of Sohag, 285 miles south of the capital Cairo
- 49 ambulances rushed to the scene and a ‘state of emergency’ declared among hospitals
- Three train carriages came off the tracks in collision
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Two passengers trains have crashed in Egypt, leaving dozens dead and wounded as carriages came off the tracks and overturned.
At least 32 people died in the crash in Sohag province, 285 miles south of Cario, on Friday when ‘unknown individuals’ pulled the emergency brake on one of the trains, causing it to stop on the tracks.
A second train then ploughed into it from behind, causing two carriages to come off the tracks while others were left buckled and broken by the force of the impact. At least 66 people have been hurt.
The crash sent three carriages off the rails and a state of emergency has been declared in hospitals in the region
Two trains collided in southern Egypt resulting in 32 deaths and 66 injuries
Some victims seemed unconscious, while others could be see bleeding. Bystanders carried bodies, laying them out on the ground near the site of the accident.
The accident took place between the area of Dafan Al-Sawam and the city of Tahta.
The local Sohag ambulance authority has sent 49 ambulances to the scene.
Hospitals in the region have declared a ‘state of emergency’ in preparation to receive casualties.
A source told local news website Cairo 24: ‘The number of injuries has exceeded dozens so far, and they have been transferred to Maragha Hospital, Tahta Hospital and Sohag Hospital’.
Egypt has been plagued with deadly train accidents in recent years that have been widely blamed on inadequate infrastructure and poor maintenance.
Egypt’s railway system has a history of badly maintained equipment and poor management. Official figures show that 1,793 train accidents took place in 2017 across the country.
In 2018, a passenger train derailed near the southern city of Aswan, injuring at least six people and prompting authorities to fire the chief of the country’s railways.
In the same year, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said the government lacked about 250 billion Egyptian pounds (£11 billion) to overhaul the run-down railway system. He spoke a day after a passenger train collided with a cargo train, killing at least 12 people, including a child.
Passengers were trapped in the wreckage after the two trains collided
The collision happened in the southern Egyptian province of Sohang. Hospitals have declared a state of emergency and 49 ambulances have been rushed to the scene
A year earlier, 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 more than 300 people were killed as fire erupted in a train travelling from Cairo to southern Egypt.
Friday’s crash comes as Egypt faces another major transport challenge, with a giant container ship blocking the Suez Canal and causing huge traffic jams at either end of the strategic shipping lane.
The MV Ever Given, which is longer than four football fields, has been wedged diagonally across the entire canal since Tuesday, shutting the waterway in both directions.
Tugboats and dredgers were working Friday to free the vessel as companies were forced to re-route services from the vital shipping lane around the southern tip of Africa.