CAIRO • Two trains collided in Egypt's coastal city of Alexandria yesterday, killing 36 people and injuring more than 100 others, a Health Ministry spokesman said.
An Alexandria-bound train coming from Cairo crashed into the rear of another train which was on its way from Port Said to Alexandria.
The crash near the suburban Khorshid station derailed the engine of one train and two cars of the other, the Egyptian Railway Authority said.
A railroad switching error was the most likely cause of the collision, a security source. He gave no further details.
State newspaper al-Ahram said 36 bodies had arrived at hospital morgues in Alexandria province. Public prosecutor Nabil Sadek ordered an urgent investigation, it said.
A medical official told state TV some wounded people were still stuck in the trains.
Footage on state television showed dozens of people crowding around the damaged train cars, with bodies strewn on the ground.
"The train I was riding was going very quickly," said passenger Moumen Youssef.
"I found myself on the floor. When we came out, we found four train cars crushed and a lot of people on the ground."
It was the deadliest train accident in the North African country since a November 2013 collision between a train and a bus killed 27 people south of Cairo.
They had been returning from a wedding when the train ploughed into their bus and a truck at a railway crossing.
That accident came months after a train carrying military conscripts derailed, killing 17 people, and almost a year after 47 schoolchildren were killed when a train crashed into their bus.
Both the transport minister and the head of the railway authority were forced to resign as a result of that accident, which was blamed on a train signal operator who fell asleep on the job.
The government also formed a panel to investigate the incident, but that did not prevent further accidents.
Egyptians have long complained that the government has failed to deal with chronic transport problems, with roads as poorly maintained as railway lines.
In Egypt's deadliest train accident in 2002, 373 people died when a fire ripped through a crowded train south of the capital.
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, XINHUA
