(Cairo) Three people, including two children, died Saturday in a collision of two trains in northern Egypt, the health ministry and media announced.
A total of 49 people were injured in the accident in Zagazig, about 80 kilometers north of Cairo, the ministry announced on its Facebook page, specifying that 44 of them could leave the hospitals where they were admitted in the “coming hours”.
The other five remain “under medical surveillance.”
According to the online version of the state newspaper al-Ahramtwo children are among the three dead.
The train is a widely used mode of transport for Egypt’s nearly 105 million people, but the vast rail network in one of Africa’s largest countries is dilapidated.
Deadly collisions and derailments regularly rekindle anger among the population, which accuses the authorities of negligence. These disasters are generally attributed to infrastructure and maintenance problems.
In April 2021, the Minister of Transport dismissed the chairman of the Railway Authority after two train accidents in less than a month that left more than 40 people dead.
Last March, at least four people were killed and 23 injured in a train derailment.