At least 80 killed in Egypt train mishap Cairo: Two passenger trains collided in northern Egypt on Monday, killing at least 80 people and injuring more than 100, the Egyptian health minister said.
The two trains carrying morning commuters to Cairo crashed into each other in the town of Qalyoub, about 12 miles north of the capital, Adly Hussein, governor of Qalyoubia province, told Egyptian state television.
Four cars derailed and overturned, forcing officials to close the lines from the Nile Delta cities of Benha and Mansoura, where the trains originated.
Health Minister Hatem el-Gabaly said at least 80 people were killed and 133 injured, according to an Egyptian state television broadcast.
The train from Mansoura had failed to stop at a signal outside the Qalyoub train station and was going at least 80 kmph when the collision occurred, police sources said on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to give statements to the media.
The driver of the Mansoura train was killed and the locomotive overturned, police said.
Footage broadcast by state television showed the front part of one train crumpled in, while other train cars lay on their sides or on the grass next to the train tracks. Rescue workers dug in the wreckage for survivors.
Egypt has a history of serious train accidents, which are usually blamed on poorly maintained equipment. Many of those incidents have occurred in the Nile Delta, north of the capital.
The most recent accident in February saw 20 people injured when two trains collided at a Nile Delta station.
Egypt's worst train disaster in February 2002 killed 363 people, many of them headed home to the country's south for the Islamic calendar's most important holiday.
