32 dead, 66 wounded as two trains collide in Egypt

Two trains collided on Friday in southern Egypt, causing three passenger cars to flip over, killing 32 people and leaving 66 injured.

The authorities confirmed the casualties as dozens of ambulance vehicles rushed to the scene of the crash, which took place in the southern province of Sohag, according to a statement by Egypt’s heath ministry.

Local media displayed videos from the scene showing flipped wagons with passengers trapped inside and surrounded by rubble. Some victims seemed unconscious, while others could be seen bleeding.

Bystanders carried bodies, laying them out on the ground near the site of the accident.

Egypt’s railway system has a history of badly maintained equipment and poor management.

Official figures showed that 1,793 train accidents took place in 2017 across the country.

In 2018, 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.

In the same year, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said the government lacked about 250 billion Egyptian pounds or $14.1 billion to overhaul the run-down rail system.

El-Sissi spoke a day after a passenger train collided with a cargo train, killing at least 12 people, including a child.

A year earlier, two passenger trains collided just outside the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, killing 43 people.

In 2016, at least 51 people were killed when two commuter trains collided near Cairo.

Egypt’s deadliest train crash took place in 2002, when over 300 people were killed as fire erupted in speeding train travelling from Cairo to southern Egypt.