CAIRO | Nearly 100 people were injured on Sunday in a train derailment north of Cairo, the latest train accident in Egypt, the health ministry said.
According to a statement from the ministry, “97 citizens were injured in a train accident near Toukh”, a small agricultural town about forty kilometers north of Cairo.
Eight wagons of the train going from Cairo to Mansoura, 130 km away, derailed, a security source told AFP.
More than 55 ambulances have been dispatched to take care of the injured, according to the Ministry of Health. Investigators were sent on site to establish the causes of the accident.
According to the security source, the train driver and other train officials were detained for questioning.
Rail accidents in Egypt are generally attributed to infrastructure and maintenance issues.
On March 26, at least 20 people died and nearly 200 were injured in a train crash near the southern city of Sohag. The general prosecutor’s office said the train driver and his assistant were not at their post during the accident, which the two men contested.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has pledged sanctions against those responsible for the railway tragedies that have plagued the country in recent years.
At the beginning of April, the African Development Bank (AfDB) announced the granting of a loan of 145 million euros to Egypt for the improvement of its railway infrastructure.