At least three killed as trains collide in Egypt

At least three people have been killed and 49 injured in a train collision in Egypt, the country’s health ministry said Saturday.

Thirty ambulances and reinforcement medical teams were sent to the scene of the collision in the city of Zagazig, the capital of Al Sharkia governorate, the ministry said in a statement.

The injured people were transferred to Al-Ahrar and Zagazig University hospitals in the city, and “rescue operations are still ongoing,” the ministry added.

It said at least five of those injured were in “unstable” conditions.

Images from the scene showed crowds of people gathered around the twisted wreckage of the trains as the rescue operations took place.

There has been a deadly accident on Egypt’s aging railway system almost every year for the past 20 years. Egypt recorded 2,044 train accidents in 2018 and 1,793 the year before, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).