At least 36 dead in Egypt train collision

At least 36 people were killed as two trains collided Friday outside the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, in one of the deadliest in a string of such accidents in Egypt, the health ministry said. The crash also injured 123 people, the ministry said in a statement. Footage on the state broadcaster showed one train had partly keeled over in the crash, and medics were seen moving the dead and injured to ambulances. Transport ministry officials, quoted on state television, said the crash was probably caused by a malfunction in one train that brought it to a halt on the rails. The other train then crashed into it.

One of them had been heading from Cairo to the northern city of Alexandria and the other from the canal city of Port Said, east of the capital, to Alexandria. The dead and injured were initially placed on blankets by the sides of the tracks amid farmland on the outskirts of Alexandria. Assistant health minister Sharif Wadi told state television that most of the injured had been taken to hospital.
Egypt’s transport minister has ordered an investigation into the crash, pledging to “hold accountable” whoever was responsible, state television reported. 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.