The death toll from Egypt's latest train disaster rose to 41 as cranes worked through Saturday to clear the stricken railway line between Cairo and the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.
Under floodlights and even the torches from their mobile phones, rescue teams had combed wrecked carriages all night for casualties.
The accident happened on Friday when two trains collided in farmland near Alexandria. As well as the 41 who died, 132 people were injured, with 79 being discharged after treatment while 53 remained in hospital on Saturday, said health minister Ahmed Emad el-Din Rady.
The injured were stretched out on the round in a field beside the railway tracks as they waited for a stream of ambulances to ferry them to Alexandria hospitals.
Workers used cranes to lift four knotted sheet-metal carriages blocking the normally busy Cairo-Alexandria line. On state television, transport ministry officials said e said the crash on the outskirts of Alexandria was probably caused by a malfunction in one train that brought it to a halt. The other train then crashed into it.
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Two trains are seen after they collided just outside Egypt’s Mediterranean port city of Alexandria. Ravy Shaker / AP Photo -
The wreckage and rescue operation of a train collision near Khorshid station in Alexandria. At least 36 people were killed as two trains collided outside the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, in one of the deadliest in a string of such accidents in Egypt, the health ministry said. Khaled Desouki / AFP -
Officials and emergency personnel remove the wreckage of a collision between two trains near Khorshid station in Alexandria. Khaled Desouki / AFP -
A victim of a train collision on the outskirts of Egypt's Mediterranean city of Alexandria lies in a hospital bed in the city. AFP -
Local people look on as emergency personnel and officials remove the wreckage following a collision by two trains near Khorshid station in Alexandria. Khaled Desouki / AFP -
Egyptian workers and security personnel prepare to retrieve the wreckage left by the collision of two passenger trains in Alexandria. Hazem Gouda / EPA -
People view the wreckage after two passenger trains collided in Alexandria. Hazem Gouda / EPA -
Army attend the scene of a train collision just outside Egypt’s Mediterranean port city of Alexandria. Ravy Shaker / AP Photo -
Onlookers gather at the scene of a train collision just outside Egypt’s Mediterranean port city of Alexandria. Ravy Shaker / AP Photo -
Two trains are seen after they collided just outside Egypt’s Mediterranean port city of Alexandria. Ravy Shaker / AP Photo
One train was travelling from Cairo to Alexandria from Cairo and the other was coming from Port Said.
President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi has sent his condolences to the victims' families and ordered a probe to "hold accountable" those responsible for the disaster.
It was the deadliest train accident in the North African country since a train ploughed into a bus carrying schoolchildren in November 2012, killing 47 people.That accident jolted the government into ordering an investigation. The transport minister and the head of the railway authority were both sacked. The accident was blamed on a train signal operator who fell asleep on the job.
The probe, however, did not prevent further accidents. Just months later, a train carrying military conscripts derailed, killing 17 people.
Around a year later, a collision between a train and a bus killed 27 people south of the capital. They had been returning from a wedding when the train ploughed into their bus and a lorry at a railway crossing.
Egyptians have long complained that the government has failed to deal with chronic transport problems, with roads as poorly maintained as railway lines. There have been many other fatal crashes on the heavily-used rail network.
In July 2008, at least 44 people died near Marsa Matruh in northwestern Egypt when a runaway lorry hurtled into a bus, another lorry and several cars waiting at a level crossing, shunting the vehicles into the path of a train.
At least 58 Egyptians were killed and 144 injured in August 2006 in a collision between two trains travelling on the same track. In the wake of that crash, a court sentenced 14 railway employees to one year in prison for neglect.
The deadliest accident on Egypt's railways dates back to 2002 when 373 people died as a fire ripped through a crowded train south of Cairo.
