Ministry confirms 11 dead, 98 injured in train derailment in Egypt

A passenger train on Sunday derailed near Cairo, killing 11 people, the Egyptian Health Ministry said, in what is the latest in a series of rail mishaps in the country.

Some 98 others were injured in the accident which took place in the city of Qalyubia north of the Egyptian capital, the ministry added in a statement.

Fourteen of the injured later left hospitals after they were treated of minor injuries, a Health Ministry spokesman said.

Four carriages of the train, which was heading from Cairo to the Nile Delta province of Mansoura, derailed, the state railway authority said.

An investigation is under way to determine the cause of the accident, it added in a brief statement.

Online footage showed several carriages turned over as sirens of ambulances can be heard in the background.

The train driver and assistant as well as eight other rail officials were arrested in connection to the derailment, privately owned newspaper al-Shorouk reported.

Egypt has seen several railway tragedies in recent years.

Earlier this week, 15 people were injured after another train derailed in the northern province of Minya al-Qamh.

On March 26, two passenger trains collided in southern Egypt, killing at least 19 people.

In February 2019, an unmanned locomotive rammed into a platform at Cairo's train station, causing a fire that claimed 31 lives.

Egypt's worst rail disaster took place in 2002, when a passenger train caught fire, killing more than 360 people.