CAIRO: Eleven people were killed and 98 injured on Sunday in a train accident in Egypt’s Qalioubia province north of Cairo.

The train was heading from Cairo to the Nile Delta city of Mansoura when four carriages derailed about 40 kms north of Cairo, the Egyptian railway said in a statement.

The cause of the accident was being investigated, it added.

More than 50 ambulances took the injured to three hospitals in the province. The derailing is the latest of several recent railway crashes in Egypt.

At least 20 people were killed and nearly 200 injured last month when two trains collided near Tahta, 440 kms south of Cairo.

Fifteen people were injured this month when two train carriages derailed near Minya al Qamh city, about 70 kms north of Cairo.

Egypt’s transportation minister Kamel El Wazir, a former army general, has faced calls to resign from some Egyptians on social media. He has rejected these and vowed to keep working on developing the aging rail network.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2021