At least 37 people were killed as two trains collided Friday outside the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, in one of the deadliest in a string of such accidents in Egypt, the health ministry said.
Photo from video
The crash also injured 123 people, the ministry said in a statement.
Footage on the state broadcaster showed one train had partly keeled over in the crash, and medics were seen moving the dead and injured to ambulances.
Transport ministry officials, quoted on state television, said the crash was probably caused by a malfunction in one train that brought it to a halt on the rails.
The other train then crashed into it.
One train had been heading from Cairo to the northern city of Alexandria and the other from the canal city of Port Said, east of the capital, to Alexandria.
The health ministry said 75 ambulances had been dispatched to treat casualties and that all the hospitals in Alexandria had been placed on high alert.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi sent his condolences to the victims' families and ordered a probe to "hold accountable" those responsible for the disaster, his office said.
It was the deadliest train accident in the North African country since a train ploughed into a bus carrying schoolchildren in November 2012, killing 47 people.
The deadliest accident on Egypt's railways dates back to 2002 when 373 people died when a fire ripped through a crowded train south of the capital.
