At least 20 ambulances were sent to the scene and the injured were transferred to nearby hospitals, health authorities said.
Videos of the aftermath of the crash posted on Facebook showed a large crowd and emergency services gathering around the rail cars, which remained just after the derailment. In other footage, passengers were seen being pulled from the wreckage through train car windows.
Railroad derailments and accidents are common in Egypt, where the railway system has a history of poorly maintained equipment and poor management. In recent years, the government has announced modernization initiatives to improve its railways.
In 2018, President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi said that about 250 billion Egyptian pounds, or $8.13 billion, would be needed to properly overhaul the North African country’s neglected railway network.
In 2021, two trains collided in the southern Egyptian city of Tahta, killing 32 people. Later that year, a train derailed in the Qalyubia region, killing 11 people.
Egypt’s deadliest train accident was in 2002, when more than 300 people were killed after a fire broke out on a night train traveling from Cairo to southern Egypt. -Egypt.
