/ 21 August 2006

Train smash claims at least 40 lives in Egypt

At least 40 people were killed on Monday when two trains travelling on the same track collided in Egypt, a security source said.

At least 40 bodies had been pulled from the wreckage while around 100 passengers were injured in the collision which occurred at Qaliub, 20km north of the capital, Cairo.

The injured were taken to seven hospitals.

One train was heading for Cairo from Mansura 130km north of the capital while the other, on the same line, was coming from Benha, 50km north, the source said.

It was the third major train crash in Egypt since February.

In May, 45 people were injured when a cargo train slammed into a stationary passenger train near the Nile Delta village of Alshat in the northern Egyptian governate of al-Sharqiya.

Three months earlier, 20 people were injured when two trains travelling in the same direction collided near the Mediterranean city of Alexandria. The second, faster train, ran into the back of the first when the driver failed to see it because of poor visibility. – Sapa-AFP