Three passengers were killed and 12 others were injured on Saturday after falling from a train heading to Qalyub in the Nile Delta, state-run TV channel Nile News reported.
The Egyptian Railway Authority said in a statement that the people who were killed had been sitting on the roof of the train. According to the statement, the train had switched to a storage track in the Ramada area to allow an express train behind it to pass, resulting in the passengers falling from the roof.
Following the incident, dozens of train passengers cut the railway lines near the scene of the accident, disrupting train movement between Cairo and Zagazig.
The area around Qalyub has been the scene of previous train accidents. In 2006, 58 people were killed after two commuter trains collided in the area.
Egyptians have long complained of successive governments failing to uphold safety standards on the nation’s railways. Egypt’s worst railway accident took place in 2002, when 363 people were killed after a train caught fire.
Meanwhile, 55 children were injured after canal at the area of Taftish in Kafr Saad in Damietta, according to state-run news agency MENA.
The children are students in Amal Kindergarten in Kafr Saad. They were on a field trip to the city of New Damietta when the driver lost control of the vehicle and it overturned and fell into a canal.
Civil protection forces and 11 ambulances arrived at the scene from Kafr Saad and Damietta and rushed the injured to Kafr Saad Central Hospital. Two are in serious condition.
Mahmoud al-Damrawi, the paramedic official in Kafr Saad, said that all injured were treated. The children mostly suffered superficial bruises, while 2 children are being subject to close monitoring for the seriousness of their injuries.
The incident was reported to the prosecution, which ordered a technical engineer to inspect the vehicle.
A total of 1,999 accidents occurred on main roads and highways last year, killing 980 people and injuring 4,392, according to a report released in May by the General Authority for Roads, Bridges and Land Transport.
Road and rail accidents in recent years have sparked a public outcry over the government’s record on transportation safety. Many road crashes in Egypt are caused by reckless driving, lax traffic rules and bad road conditions.
