11 killed, 98 hurt in Egypt train crash

CAIRO－A train accident north of Cairo on Sunday left at least 11 people dead and 98 others injured, Egypt's Health Ministry said, in the latest rail calamity to hit the North African country.

Four train wagons ran off the railway in the Delta city of Toukh, north of the Egyptian capital of Cairo. Videos on social media showed wagons overturned and passengers scrambling to safety along the railway.

The train was traveling to the Nile Delta city of Mansoura from the Egyptian capital.

The Health Ministry said in a statement that besides the dead, the 98 people injured mostly suffered broken bones, cuts and bruises. At least 60 ambulances were dispatched to the site.

Salvage teams could be seen searching for survivors and removing the wagons. It was not immediately clear what caused the train to derail. Prosecutors said they were investigating the causes of the crash.

President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi tasked the military's engineering authority on Sunday with investigating the latest incident, which came on the heels of a deadly train crash last month.

The state-run Ahram daily reported that authorities have detained at least 10 railway officials, including the train driver and his assistant, pending an investigation into the crash.

At Banha University hospital, people lined up to donate blood for the crash victims. Families were also present looking for loved ones who had been traveling on the train.

"We were surprised by the train speeding up," said Tarek Gomaa, one of the injured. "We found ourselves on top of each other."

Poor maintenance

Egyptian rail disasters are generally attributed to poor infrastructure and maintenance. Sisi said in March 2018 the government needs about 250 billion Egyptian pounds ($14.1 billion) to overhaul the rundown rail system.

At least 20 people died and 199 were injured on March 25 in a train crash in the country's south, sparking a public outcry across the country.

The prosecution has alleged the driver of one train and his assistant both left the driver's cabin when it crashed into another train. Transport Minister Kamel el-Wazir blamed the March crash on human error.

The African Development Bank announced earlier this month a $170 million loan to improve safety on Egypt's rail network.

"The planned upgrades are expected to benefit low-income Egyptians, about 40 percent of the population, who rely on trains as an affordable mode of transport," it said in a statement.

One of the country's deadliest train crashes came in 2002, when 373 people died as a fire ripped through a crowded train south of Cairo.

Agencies - Xinhua