CAIRO, March 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — At least 32 people died and 66 others were injured after two passenger trains collided in Egypt on Friday, the health ministry said.
A statement said dozens of ambulances rushed to the scene in the Tahta district of Sohag province, about 460km south of the capital Cairo.
“32 people were killed and 66 injured” and transported to hospital, the statement said.
Video footage showed several carriages overturned.
Pictures on local media showed train carriages derailed above a channel of water.
Egypt’s railway authority said the two trains collided after emergency brakes were triggered by “unknown individuals” near the city of Sohag.
The brakes caused one of the trains to stop and the other to crash into it from behind, and the authority is conducting further investigations, it said.
Friday’s crash comes as Egypt faces another major transport challenge, with a giant container ship blocking the Suez Canal and causing huge traffic jams at either end of the strategic shipping lane.
The Ever Given vessel, which is longer than four football fields, has been wedged diagonally across the entire canal since Tuesday, shutting the waterway in both directions.
Tugboats and dredgers were working Friday to free the vessel as companies were forced to re-route services from the vital shipping lane around the southern tip of Africa.
