Seven killed, more than 100 injured in train crash in Egypt

At least seven people have been killed and more than 100 injured in a train crash on the outskirts of Cairo, the capital of Egypt.

The country's Health Ministry said more than 112 people were injured in the crash in Giza province.

On Sunday, a train travelling from Giza to Fayoum ran into the back of another train on the Cairo-to-Aswan route. The impact derailed the second train, overturning its carriages onto a countryside road in the district of al-Ayyat.

The passenger train was travelling from the Egyptian capital to the southern city of Aswan.

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

Authorities said more than 70 ambulances took part in transporting and evacuating casualties at the scene, with the injured taken to nearby hospitals.

Al-Ayyat district 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 there.

In 2009, multiple train crashes in the area killed dozens more.

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 much work remains to be done.