Egyptian PM, officials visit injured at hospital

SOHAG: Two planes carrying a total of 52 doctors, mostly surgeons, were sent to Sohag from Cairo, following a deadly crash between two trains on Friday.

The trains crashed in southern Egypt, killing at least 32 people and injuring 165, authorities said in the latest of a series of deadly accidents on the country’s troubled railways.

Someone apparently activated the emergency brakes on the passenger train, and it was rear-ended by another train, causing two cars to derail and flip on their side, Egypt's Railway Authorities said, although Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly later added that no cause has been determined.

The passenger train was headed to the Mediterranean port of Alexandria, north of Cairo, rail officials said.

More than 100 ambulances were sent to the scene in the province of Sohag, about 440 kilometers (270 miles) south of Cairo, Health Minister Hala Zayed said, and the injured were taken to four hospitals.

Injuries included broken bones, cuts and bruises.

Egypt's rail system has a history of badly maintained equipment and mismanagement, and official figures said there were 1,793 train accidents in 2017.

In 2018, a passenger train derailed near the southern city of Aswan, injuring at least six people and prompting authorities to fire the chief of the country's railways.

A year earlier, two passenger trains collided just outside Alexandria, killing 43.

In 2016, at least 51 people were killed when two commuter trains collided near Cairo.

Egypt's deadliest train crash was in 2002, when over 300 people were killed after fire broke out in a train traveling from Cairo to southern Egypt.