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At least 32 people have been killed and 66 injured after two trains collided in southern Egypt, the deadliest such incident in nearly four years.
Dozens of ambulances rushed to the scene of the crash in the southern province of Sohag, the country’s health ministry said.
Videos from the scene showed panicked citizens and police trying to free passengers trapped in the crumpled wagons, some of which had been flipped upside down or on their side.
Some victims appeared unconscious, while others could be seen bleeding amid the debris.
Bystanders carried bodies, laying them out on the ground near the site of the accident.
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The transport ministry said that unknown persons pulled the emergency brake on a train going from Luxor to Alexandria, stopping it, local media reported. Another train heading from Cairo to Aswan then crashed into it just before noon local time.
Train crashes and disasters are common in Egypt where the crumbling transport network is woefully neglected and poorly funded.
Friday’s collision is believed to be the deadliest incident since August 2017 when two passenger trains collided near Alexandria, killing more than 40 people and injuring scores.
A video grab taken from the Egyptian state television station shows people searching for survivors
(EGYPTIAN STATE TV/AFP via Getty)
In February 2019, 25 people were killed and dozens injured in an explosion at Egypt’s main railway station, after an unmanned speeding railcar crashed into a barrier, setting a fuel tank on fire.
There are no recent statistics, but official figures from 2017 show that year saw 1,793 train accidents occur across Egypt.
In 2018, after 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, President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi said the government lacks about 250 billion Egyptian pounds, or $14.1 billion, to overhaul the run-down rail system.
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