Villagers in a farming district south of Cairo, Egypt, reached the overturned carriages before the ambulances did, pulling passengers out of the twisted wreckage of two trains that had come to rest on the same stretch of track.
Two passenger trains collided in the al-Ayyat district of Giza province on Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026, killing seven people and injuring at least 125, authorities said. The site sits about 32 miles south of Cairo.
The Transportation Ministry said the Giza-Fayoum train ran into the rear of an Aswan-bound train. Investigators found that the impact struck the rear car of the Cairo-Aswan train, which was standing still on the same track and facing the same way, officials said. Early reports put the death toll at four, and the Health Ministry raised it to seven later in the day.
A Logbook Altered to Hide Negligence
Prosecutors ordered the detention of two railway officials late Monday, Nov. 9 — the controller and the stationmaster at Al-Raqqa station — after they admitted failing to monitor the control panel for a signal tower. Prosecutors said the controller had also tampered with the signals logbook to hide his negligence.
Investigators also found that the driver of the Fayoum-bound train had disabled the automatic control system before the crash. The driver’s assistant is being held for questioning. The driver of the Fayoum-bound train was among the dead. Investigators from the Chief Prosecutor’s office arrived at the site late Sunday.
Prosecutors ordered the formation of an engineering committee of professors from Cairo University’s Faculty of Engineering late Monday, Nov. 9. The panel is examining railway operations, monitoring, equipment, signaling, maintenance, safety procedures and the human factor, and will review previous train accidents for recurring causes. Its technical examination is continuing.
The Minister Admits Failings in Parliament
Transport Minister Kamel el-Wazir sat through about six hours of questioning by parliament’s transport committee on Tuesday, Nov. 10, and admitted failings in the rail network. “We acknowledge that there are mistakes, and our aim is to prevent accidents or reduce them,” he said.
El-Wazir told lawmakers that disabling the automatic control system is now punishable by dismissal, and that he did not know why it had been switched off. He said 21 officials signed off on the train’s safety checks before it left the depot. Asked about the system, he described his 2021 decision as a one-off influenced by heavy rain. “People say I issued instructions to shut down the ATC. Yes, it happened, but people are taking my words out of context,” he said.
He went further on the state of the network at the same hearing: “I acknowledge that we are not good at management and the private sector has the tools to succeed.” Some lawmakers called for his resignation. Others said blame should be left to investigators.
The committee issued more than 25 recommendations on safety and operations, and called for a broader review of why accidents keep recurring in al-Ayyat. Injured passengers told investigators that the Fayoum-bound train was traveling at high speed from the moment it left al-Ayyat station.
What Passengers Saw Through the Dust
Survivors described passengers in shock, barely able to breathe through the dust thrown up by the impact, with villagers from nearby becoming their rescuers. Farha Gamal, a passenger on the Fayoum train, said in an interview that some people around her appeared dead while others struggled to find a way out of the car. “There were other cars that were completely mangled,” she said.
Ayman Gamal, a resident of the village of Kafr Girza in al-Ayyat, said neighbors pulled survivors out of the wreck and called ambulances. He watched about 80 injured people loaded into ambulances and driven to nearby hospitals. Passengers trapped in one car of the stationary train were dead when rescuers pulled them free, he said.
Abdel Wahed Mohamed, 31, was at a cafe nearby when the trains hit and said the Aswan-bound train had stopped before the Fayoum-bound train ran into it. He counted six overturned carriages and injuries that ran from head wounds to broken limbs. Ahmed Moussa, 25, another witness, said rescuers dug under one overturned carriage to reach trapped passengers and that two of the dead were women. Taha Abdel Tawab, 43, said he “saw a young man leaving the train carrying his dead father.”
Authorities sent more than 70 ambulances to carry the injured to nearby hospitals, and survivors were taken to al-Wasta Central Hospital in neighboring Beni Suef province. The Health Ministry said more than 70 of the injured were treated and discharged. Health Minister Khaled Abdel Ghaffar said medical teams were treating patients for fractures and head trauma, and the Egyptian Red Crescent sent volunteers with relief supplies and psychological counseling.
President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi ordered a prompt investigation in a social media post and said anyone responsible would be held to account. The Egyptian Railway Authority said emergency crews and cranes worked into Sunday night to clear the wreckage, with a quick resumption of service the aim. Trains were running again between Cairo and Aswan by Monday, Nov. 9.
Egypt’s Deadliest Rail Disaster Happened Here
Al-Ayyat lies near the Nile River in the south of Giza, the province known worldwide as home of Egypt’s ancient pyramids. The country’s deadliest rail disaster struck the same district in 2002, when a fire on an overnight train from Cairo to southern Egypt killed more than 370 people. Multiple crashes in the area killed dozens in 2009, and in September two freight trains collided in al-Ayyat, injuring a train driver and his assistant.
Crashes and derailments are frequent in Egypt, where the rail network has long suffered from mismanagement and poorly maintained equipment. The government has promised modernization in recent years.
In a separate case in August 2025, a passenger train bound for Cairo from the western Mediterranean province of Matrouh derailed in western Egypt, killing at least three people and injuring 94 others, authorities said. Railway authorities said seven wagons came off the tracks, two of them overturning, and that an investigation was under way to determine the cause. The Health Ministry said it dispatched 30 ambulances to carry the injured to hospitals.
