CAIRO, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- A passenger train heading south from Cairo struck a train standing still Saturday evening, killing at least 25 people, Egyptian officials said.
More than 50 were injured in the crash, Sky News reported.
Mohammed Sarhan, a Health Ministry spokesman, told Nile News TV the location of the wreck on a canal bank hampered rescue efforts, CNN reported. Emergency workers used tree trunks and branches to create an improvised bridge, allowing them to reach the wreckage, Sarhan added.
The moving train was en route from Cairo to Asyut, a city of 400,000 in Upper Egypt. The other was on its way from Giza, about 12 miles south of Cairo, to Fayum, about 80 miles south.
The governor of October 6th province ordered compensation for the families of the dead, a common practice in Egypt, the Middle East News Agency reported. Egypt is notorious for deadly train wrecks, including one in 2006 when two trains collided just north of Cairo, killing 57 people.
Egyptian National Railways and the Transportation Ministry have promised investigations.
