Seven Dead in Al-Ayyat Train Collision, Over 100 Injured
Investigators report a moving train struck a stationary vehicle on the same track in Giza province.
By Jack Weber ·
Seven people lost their lives and more than 100 others sustained injuries in a train collision that occurred Sunday south of Cairo. The Chief Prosecutor’s office confirmed the death toll in a statement, noting that the conductor of one of the trains was among the fatalities.
The Transportation Ministry identified the crash location as al-Ayyat district in Giza province, situated approximately 52 kilometers south of the capital. A train bound for Fayoum province struck the rear of a train traveling toward Aswan. According to officials, the Cairo-to-Aswan train was stationary on the same track and moving in the same direction at the time of the impact.
Investigators from the Chief Prosecutor’s office arrived at the scene late Sunday. Their initial inspection found that the Giza-Fayoum train collided with the final carriage of the halted Cairo-Aswan train. The Egyptian Railway Authority stated that emergency crews and cranes were deployed to remove debris and resume regular service.
Local residents responded immediately after the crash. Ayman Gamal, a resident of Kafr Girza in al-Ayyat, described how neighbors rushed to the site to extract survivors and summon ambulances. Gamal reported seeing approximately 80 injured passengers transported to nearby hospitals. He also noted that some passengers trapped inside a carriage of the stationary train were pronounced dead upon rescue.
President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi posted on social media that he had ordered a swift investigation into the incident. The accident highlights ongoing challenges within Egypt’s railway network, which has faced criticism for maintenance issues and management practices. While the government has launched modernization programs in recent years, collisions and derailments continue to occur.
This is not the first incident in the region. In September, a train driver and an assistant were injured when two freight trains collided in the same district. The current event is being compared historically to the 2002 crash, which remains the deadliest in Egyptian rail history after a fire killed more than 300 passengers on an overnight route to southern Egypt.
