Egypt train crash kills at least 32

26 March 2021, 13:00 | Updated: 26 March 2021, 13:03

At least 32 people are dead following a crash between two trains in southern Egypt.

More than 60 others were also hurt when two services collided in the southern province of Sohag.

Images from the scene show several carriages have flipped over, with passengers trapped inside and surrounded by rubble.

Dozens of ambulance vehicles were rushed to the scene of the crash.

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.

This is not the first serious accident on Egypt's railways, which have a history of bad maintenance and poor management.

Three years ago, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said the equivalent of around £10.2bn was needed to overhaul the run-down network.

There were 1,793 accidents in the country during 2017, according to the latest official figures available.

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 lacks 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 when fire erupted in speeding train traveling from Cairo to southern Egypt.