On a Saturday in Zagazig, the capital of Egypt's Sharqiya province in the Nile delta, two passenger trains met in collision, and by the reckoning of authorities at least three lives were lost, two of them children, while more than forty others were hurt. The cause has not yet been named, and in that silence the event sits within a longer story, one of an ageing railway that has been slow to renew itself and whose passengers have paid for that delay. Each accident adds a line to a record that the state has acknowledged, and what the people of Zagazig now wait for is less a verdict on this one m
Three Dead, Dozens Hurt as Two Passenger Trains Collide in Egypt's Nile Delta
At least three people, two of them children, were killed and more than 40 others injured when two passenger trains collided.
Men tried to lift the injured out through the windows of a passenger car.
On a Saturday in Zagazig, the capital of Egypt's Sharqiya province in the Nile delta, two passenger trains met in collision, and by the reckoning of authorities at least three lives were lost, two of them children, while more than forty others were hurt. The cause has not yet been named, and in that silence the event sits within a longer story, one of an ageing railway that has been slow to renew itself and whose passengers have paid for that delay. Each accident adds a line to a record that the state has acknowledged, and what the people of Zagazig now wait for is less a verdict on this one moment than evidence that the record will not keep growing.
On Saturday, two passenger trains collided in Zagazig, a city in Egypt's Nile delta and the capital of Sharqiya province. Authorities say at least three people died, two of them children, and Egypt's health ministry reported more than forty injured. The railway authority confirmed the crash and its location, but no cause has been given yet.
Video from the scene shows one railway car crumpled and crowds gathered around it. Men were seen passing injured passengers out through the windows of a carriage, a sign of how difficult it was for those inside to get out any other way.
Derailments and crashes are common in Egypt, where an old rail network has long suffered from mismanagement. Successive governments have promised reform, and in 2018 President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi acknowledged that a full overhaul would cost 250bn Egyptian pounds, about $8.13bn. The Zagazig collision also follows a deadly crash in Alexandria last month, when a train hit a truck on the tracks and two people died.
The casualty figures are preliminary, and officials and hospitals may still revise them. What comes next is whether investigators explain why the trains collided, and whether the long-discussed rail overhaul finally receives the money it was judged to need.
On Saturday, two passenger trains collided in the city of Zagazig, in Egypt's Nile delta. At least three people were killed, two of them children, according to authorities. Egypt's health ministry said at least 40 others were injured.
Zagazig is the capital of Sharqiya province, and it was the country's railway authority that confirmed the crash and its location. The reports available so far do not say how the two trains came to collide, and no cause has been announced.
Video from the scene shows what the impact did. One train car is crumpled, and crowds surround it. In the footage, men try to lift injured passengers out through the windows of a passenger car, which suggests the people trapped inside could not easily get out any other way.
Train derailments and crashes are common in Egypt. The country's railway system is old, and it has long been plagued by mismanagement. In recent years the government has announced initiatives to improve it, but the collision in Zagazig is another entry in a long record of accidents.
The scale of the neglect was acknowledged at the top of government. In 2018, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said that properly overhauling the rail network would require 250bn Egyptian pounds, about $8.13bn. That figure was described as the cost of repairing a system that had been left to decay.
The Zagazig crash is also not the only one in recent weeks. Last month, in the Mediterranean province of Alexandria, a train struck a truck that was crossing the tracks. Two people died in that accident.
The casualty figures from Zagazig come from preliminary statements. The phrase "at least" attached to both the death toll and the injury count means the numbers could change as hospitals and officials complete their tallies. What to watch next is whether authorities publish findings on why the trains collided, and whether the rail overhaul that officials have discussed for years receives the funding it was estimated to need.
Citas Notables
Properly overhauling the neglected rail network would require 250bn Egyptian pounds, or $8.13bn.— President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, 2018
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