Three killed in Egypt passenger train collision

Authorities report 49 injured in Zagazig crash 80km north of Cairo

Three people were killed and scores injured in a collision between two passenger trains in Zagazig, north of Cairo, Egypt's Health Ministry said on Sunday.

The collision late on Saturday was the latest in a series of fatal accidents to hit Egypt's extensive rail network, which has been beset by obsolete infrastructure and mismanagement.

The ministry said 49 people were injured in the crash, which happened 80km north of Cairo. Forty-four of the injured were in stable condition and expected to be released from hospital. The remaining five were in unstable condition.

The railway authority said one of the trains was heading from Zagazig to Ismailia on the Suez Canal, while the other was on its way from the city of Mansoura on the Mediterranean to Zagazig in the Nile Delta.

State-owned newspaper Al-Ahram said two children were among the dead.

Egypt's 106 million people depend heavily on rail transport but the network, although one of the largest on the African continent, has repeatedly suffered fatal accidents. Trains in Egypt are involved in hundreds of accidents a year, many of them too minor to be reported.

Last year, four people were killed and dozens injured after a train derailed while travelling from Ramses station in the Egyptian capital to the city of Menouf in the Nile Delta. Other train accidents in March and April last year killed more than 40 and injured hundreds.

In 2021, two accidents within less than a month killed more than 40 people.

Egypt has been working for years to develop its transport network, modernise trains and develop railway lines in a programme worth billions of dollars.