55 injured as train derails near Giza, Egypt

CAIRO - At least 55 people were injured as an Egyptian train derailed on Friday near Egypt's Giza, south of the capital Cairo, official MENA news agency reported.

The train was traveling from Cairo to the southern province of Qena. Three cabins of the train derailed and overturned, the Egyptian National Railways said in a statement.

The Egyptian Health Ministry said it has sent 25 ambulances to the scene for rescue operations.

Transport Minister Hisham Arafat has rushed to the scene of the train derailment to deal with the accident, the Ministry of Transport said in a statement.

Egypt has witnessed a number of deadly train accidents over the past few years, in which hundreds were killed and wounded.

On Feb. 28, a train collision killed at least 12 people in the Beheira province north of the capital Cairo.

In August 2017, two trains crashed in the Mediterranean coastal province of Alexandria, leaving at least 49 people dead and more than 100 injured.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi ordered the government to accelerate the development of the country's railway network to avoid deadly train crashes soon after the train collision in Alexandria.

The worst train accident in Egypt took place in Giza's district of Ayyat in 2002, which killed 350 passengers when a fire broke out in a train coming from Upper Egypt, forcing many passengers to jump out to survive.