Cairo: Two passenger trains collided in Egypt's Nile Delta on Saturday, killing at least three people, and injuring nearly 50, authorities said. The crash happened in the city of Zagazig, the capital of Sharqiya province, the country's railway authority said in a statement. Egypt's Health Ministry said the collision injured at least 49 others.
Train derailments and crashes are common in Egypt, where an aging railway system has also been plagued by mismanagement. In recent years, the government announced initiatives to improve its railways.
In 2018, President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi said some 250 billion Egyptian pounds, or USD 8.13 billion, would be needed to properly overhaul the North African country's neglected rail network.
People surround a passenger train which collided with another in Egypt's Nile Delta city of Zagazig, the provincial capital of Sharqiya province.
Video from the site of the crash showed a train car crumpled by the impact, surrounded by crowds. Men tried to lift the injured through the windows of a passenger car.
Last month, a train crashed into a truck crossing the train tracks in the Mediterranean province of Alexandria, killing two people. The crash, in the city of Borg el Arab located to the west of Alexandria, was due to a truck being on the tracks when they were meant to be closed for the transit of a passenger train, the statement from the Alexandria governor's office said.
The train, coming from the town of El-Dabaa, was derailed by the collision. Train derailments and crashes are common in Egypt, where an aging railway system has also been plagued by mismanagement. In recent years, the government announced initiatives to improve its railways.
Egypt’s deadliest train crash was in 2002, when more than 300 people were killed after a fire broke out on an overnight train journeying from Cairo to southern Egypt.
(With inputs from agency)
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