Egypt orders investigation of second deadly train crash in weeks

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has ordered an investigation into the derailment of a passenger train north of Cairo that killed 11 people, less than a month after another fatal crash.

At least four carriages went off the tracks Sunday shortly after the train departed from a station in Qalyubia governorate in the Nile Delta region en route to Mansoura, a city northeast of the capital, state media reported. At least 98 people were injured, the Health Ministry said, and about 60 ambulances were dispatched to transport the injured to local hospitals.

State media reported that hundreds of rail accidents occur yearly in Egypt, including a crash in southern Egypt in March that left 19 dead. The back-to-back accidents in recent weeks have cast a spotlight on the country’s aging railway infrastructure as authorities move ahead with an ongoing revamp of the system and improved safety protocols.