Middle East

At least 40 people killed after train crash in Egypt

Railways authority says train to Alexandria hit back of another at small station

Soldiers at the scene of a major train crash just outside Egypt’s Mediterranean port city of Alexandria on Friday. Photograph: Ravy Shaker/AP Photo
Soldiers at the scene of a major train crash just outside Egypt’s Mediterranean port city of Alexandria on Friday. Photograph: Ravy Shaker/AP Photo
Fri Aug 11 2017 - 21:35

Two passenger trains collided just outside Egypt’s Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, killing at least 40 people and injuring more than 100.

It is the country’s deadliest rail incident in more than a decade.

A statement by the Egyptian Railways Authority said a train travelling to Alexandria from Cairo, Egypt's capital, crashed into the back of another train standing at a small station in the district of Khorshid, just east of Alexandria.

Egyptian security personnel examine wreckage after two passenger trains collided in Alexandria, Egypt. Photograph: Hazem Gouda/EPA
Egyptian security personnel examine wreckage after two passenger trains collided in Alexandria, Egypt. Photograph: Hazem Gouda/EPA

The stationary train had just arrived from Port Said, a Mediterranean city on the northern tip of the Suez Canal, when it was hit, according to the statement.

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The statement did not say what caused the incident, saying only that the authority’s experts would be investigating.

Video footage from the scene showed mangled train coaches on the tracks as hundreds of onlookers and victims’ relatives gathered on both sides of the tracks.

Riot police

Ambulances were standing by and riot police were deployed to keep the onlookers away from the scene of the disaster.

People gather at the site of a train collision in the area of Khorshid, in Egypt’s Mediterranean city of Alexandria. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
People gather at the site of a train collision in the area of Khorshid, in Egypt’s Mediterranean city of Alexandria. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Egypt’s railway system has a poor safety record, mostly blamed on decades of badly maintained equipment and poor management.

Friday’s collision was the latest in a series of deadly incidents that have claimed hundreds of lives over the years.

Figures recently released by the state’s statistics agency show that 1,249 train incidents took place last year - the highest number since 2009 when the number reached 1,577.

People by the wreckage after two passenger trains collided in Alexandria, Egypt. Photograph: Hazem Gouda/EPA
People by the wreckage after two passenger trains collided in Alexandria, Egypt. Photograph: Hazem Gouda/EPA

Friday’s was the deadliest such incident since 2006, when at least 51 people were killed when two commuter trains collided near Cairo.

In 2002, a massive fire engulfed a train filled with local travellers.

The train sped for miles, with flames engulfing one carriage after another, killing more than 370 people.

In November 2012, a speeding train crashed into a bus carrying Egyptian children to their nursery in the country’s south, killing more than 50 people - mostly children between the ages of four and six.

Two months later, at least 19 people died and more than 100 were injured in a train derailment south of Cairo.

AP