At least seven people have been killed and more than 112 others injured in a train crash on the outskirts of Cairo in Egypt’s Giza province, according to the country’s Health Ministry.

A train travelling between Giza and Fayoum on Sunday ran into the back of another train on the Cairo-to-Aswan route, causing the latter to derail from its tracks onto a countryside road in the district of al-Ayyat, authorities said.

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Emergency rescue teams and cranes were dispatched to the scene to clear the wreckage and restore train services to their normal schedule as soon as possible, Egyptian National Railways said.

Authorities say more than 70 ambulances were involved in transport and evacuation operations at the scene of the crash, with casualties taken to nearby hospitals.

Previous accidents

Al-Ayyat district, where the collision happened, is also the site of Egypt’s worst-ever rail disaster.

In 2002, more than 370 people were killed when a fire swept through a train carrying holiday travellers south of Cairo. In 2009, multiple train crashes in the area killed dozens.

Egypt’s 110 million people depend heavily on rail transport, but the cross-country network – one of the largest in Africa – is in need of modernisation.

Over the past decade, Egypt has poured billions of dollars into updating its transport infrastructure, including new highways and high-speed rail lines, but has yet to overhaul much of its dated train services.