26 killed, 131 injured, in northern Egypt train crash
Two passenger trains collided in northern Egypt today, killing at least 26 people and injuring 131, railway officials told Egyptian state television.
The early morning incident occurred in the town of Qalyoub, 12 miles north of the capital Cairo.
Adly Hussein, governor of Qalyoubia province where the town is located, told Egyptian state television that two southbound trains heading for Cairo carrying commuters collided at about 7.45am (5.45am Irish time).
Four carriages derailed and overturned which closed the lines from the Nile Delta cities of Benha and Mansoura, where the trains originated.
A fire that broke out as a result of the incident was extinguished, Hussein added.
Egypt has a history of serious train accidents, which are usually blamed on poorly maintained equipment. Many of those incidents have occurred in the Nile Delta, north of the capital.
The most recent accident, in February, saw 20 people injured when two trains collided at a Nile Delta station.
Egypt’s worst train disaster, in February 2002, killed 363 people, many of them heading home to the country’s south for the Islamic calendar’s most important holiday.
