Two passenger trains collided yesterday in northern Egypt, killing at least 36 people.
More than 120 people were injured in the collision, health officials said.
One train was travelling from Cairo and the other from Port Said, when they hit in a head-on collision, in the northern coastal city of Alexandria, according to local media report.
Emergency teams rushed to the scene to evacuate the dead and the injured. It was not immediately known what caused the two trains to collide. Deadly train accidents in Egypt are rare but not unheard of.
Footage broadcast on Egyptian state broadcaster, Nile TV, showed one of the trains partly keeled over in the crash, with emergency services transferring the injured to ambulances. All hospitals in the region have been placed on high alert.
The death toll was initially put at 21 but this was later revised upwards by the health ministry.
Egypt’s transport minister has ordered an investigation into the crash, Nile TV reported.
In 2013, dozens of people were killed when a train crashed into a minibus and other vehicles south of Cairo.
Egypt’s deadliest rail accident occurred near the capital in 2002, when a fire ripped through a crowded train, killing more than 370 people.