Two passenger trains collided some 76 km south of Cairo on Sunday, killing at least four people and injuring 88, Egypt’s health ministry said.

The state railway authority said a train traveling from Giza to Fayoum hit the back of another heading from Cairo to Aswan, derailing several carriages.

Emergency crews were clearing the wreckage to restore services on the Cairo-Upper Egypt line, the railway authority said, without giving any indication of how long this would take.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered a swift investigation and said anyone found negligent should be held accountable, according to a separate statement.

Egypt's public prosecutor's office said investigations were underway to determine the technical reasons behind the crash.

Police officers and emergency services work at the site of a deadly collision between two passenger trains near Al-Ayyat village in Giza Governorate, south of Cairo, Egypt, November 8, 2026.
Police officers and emergency services work at the site of a deadly collision between two passenger trains near Al-Ayyat village in Giza Governorate, south of Cairo, Egypt, November 8, 2026. (credit: REUTERS/MOHAMED ABD EL GHANY)

Railway crashes common in Egypt

Egypt has one of the oldest and largest railway networks in the region and accidents involving casualties are common, though the government has been investing billions of Egyptian pounds to modernize the network.

In the country's worst-ever rail disaster, a fire tore through seven carriages of an overcrowded passenger service in 2002, killing at least 360 people.