Train carrying army recruits derails in Egypt, 19 killed

At least 19 people died and more than 100 were injured when two railway passenger cars derailed just south of Cairo after midnight on Monday, health officials said.

The accident comes less than two weeks after a new transportation minister was appointed to overhaul the rail system, and just two months after a deadly collision between a train and school bus.

The official Mena news agency quoted Health Ministry officials who said that the 107 wounded were being treated in hospitals near the site of the accident in Giza’s Badrasheen neighbourhood. They said the number of dead is expected to rise.

The state-owned Ahram website reported that the 12-carriage train was carrying 1,328 conscripted Egyptian soldiers headed north from Assiut to Cairo.

Roy Hamad Gaafar, a survivor, said he was on board when the last two carriages detached from the rest and derailed.

“I saw my colleagues’ body parts strewn on the tracks,” he told the news website.