Villagers from a farming district south of Cairo ran to the tracks to pull passengers out of overturned carriages after one train slammed into the back of another.
Seven people were killed and at least 125 injured when two passenger trains collided Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026, in the al-Ayyat district of Giza province, about 52 kilometers (32 miles) south of Cairo, authorities said. The train’s conductor was among the dead, according to the Chief Prosecutor’s office. More than 70 of the injured were treated and discharged, the Health Ministry said.
Farha Gamal, a passenger on the Fayoum train, said some of the people around her appeared dead while others struggled to find a way out of the car. “There were other cars that were completely mangled,” she said in an interview.
Survivors taken to al-Wasta Central Hospital in neighboring Beni Suef province said passengers were in shock and could barely breathe through the dust thrown up by the impact. Villagers nearby eventually got them out, they said.
The Last Car of the Aswan Train
The Giza-Fayoum train ran into the rear of a train headed for the southern province of Aswan, the Transportation Ministry said. Investigators found it had hit the rear car of the Cairo-Aswan train, which was standing still on the same track and facing the same way, officials said.
Al-Ayyat sits near the Nile River in the south of Giza, the province known worldwide as the home of Egypt’s ancient pyramids.
El-Sissi Orders a Prompt Investigation
President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi wrote on social media that he had ordered a prompt investigation into the crash so that anyone responsible would be held to account.
Early reports put the death toll at four before the Health Ministry raised it to seven later in the day.
More than 70 ambulances were sent to carry the injured to nearby hospitals.
Al-Ayyat Has Seen This Before
Egypt’s deadliest rail disaster struck the same district. More than 300 people were killed in 2002 when a fire broke out on an overnight train traveling from Cairo to southern Egypt. Multiple crashes in the area killed dozens in 2009. In September 2025, two freight trains collided in al-Ayyat, injuring a train driver and his assistant.
Crashes and derailments are frequent in Egypt, whose rail network has long suffered from mismanagement and poorly maintained equipment, though the government has promised modernization in recent years.
Rescuers Dug Beneath an Overturned Carriage
Ayman Gamal, a resident of the village of Kafr Girza in al-Ayyat, said neighbors rushed to the wreck, pulled survivors out and called for ambulances. He watched about 80 injured people loaded into ambulances and driven to nearby hospitals. Passengers trapped inside one car of the stationary train were dead when they were pulled free, he said.
Abdel Wahed Mohamed, 31, was sitting at a cafe nearby when the trains met. The Aswan-bound train had stopped, he said, and the Fayoum-bound train plowed into it. He counted six overturned carriages, and said the injured suffered everything from head wounds to broken limbs.
Another witness, Ahmed Moussa, 25, watched rescuers dig under one of the overturned carriages to reach passengers trapped inside. Two of the dead were women, he said.
Emergency crews and cranes worked into Sunday night to clear the wreckage so service could resume quickly, according to the Egyptian Railway Authority. Investigators from the Chief Prosecutor’s office reached the site late Sunday.
Taha Abdel Tawab, 43, said he “saw a young man leaving the train carrying his dead father.”
Seven Wagons Off the Tracks
In a separate case, a passenger train bound for Cairo from the western Mediterranean province of Matrouh derailed in western Egypt in August 2025, killing at least three people and injuring 94 others, authorities said. Seven of its wagons went off the tracks, and two of them overturned, railway authorities said. The Health Ministry said 30 ambulances were dispatched to carry the injured to hospitals, and railway authorities said an investigation was under way to determine the cause.