Eleven people were killed and 98 injured in a train accident that is the fifth during a month in Egypt. The tragic accident occurred in Qalyubia Governorate north of Cairo, the health ministry said in a statement.
Egyptian National Railways said in a short statement that the train was heading from Cairo to the Nile Delta city of Mansoura when four carriages derailed about 40 kilometres north of Cairo. It added that the cause of the accident is being investigated. More than 50 ambulances took the injured to three hospitals in the province, the health ministry said.
This is the fifth accident in Egypt since March 26 when two trains collided in Sohag, killing 20 people and wounding 165 others. On April 2, six cars disconnected from a train heading from Cairo to Aswan without injuries. On April 15, the Railways Authority announced that the “rear buggy” had left two train cars in Minya al-Qamh in Sharkia Governorate, wounding 15 people. On April 17, two cars detached from a commuter train heading from Alexandria to Luxor near the Beni Suef station.
Egypt’s transportation minister Kamel El-Wazir, a former army general, has faced calls to resign from Egyptians on social media. He has rejected these and vowed to keep working on developing the ageing rail network.
