Al Ayyat (Egypt) (AFP) - Two trains collided south of the Egyptian capital on Sunday, derailing several carriages, killing seven people and injuring more than 100 others, according to the authorities.

Egypt’s railway authority said a train travelling from Giza to Fayoum crashed into the rear of another service heading south from Cairo to the city of Aswan.

The health ministry said 112 people were injured and were now being

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said he was following the accident “with great concern”, and had directed authorities to conduct an urgent investigation to “hold accountable anyone found to have been negligent”.

Witnesses described chaotic rescue efforts after the collision, as villagers, first responders and railway workers scrambled to reach passengers trapped inside overturned carriages.

Abdel Wahed Mohamed, 31, who was sitting at a nearby cafe when the collision occurred, said the Aswan-bound train had stopped, when the Fayoum-bound train crashed into it.

“The train overturned at around 1:30 pm. Six carriages overturned,” he said, adding that victims suffered a range of injuries, including head wounds and broken limbs.

Another witness, Ahmed Moussa, 25, said rescuers dug beneath one overturned carriage to reach trapped passengers.

“There were people piled on top of each other inside,” he said, adding that he saw two women among the dead.

Taha Abdel Tawab, 43, said he “saw a young man leaving the train carrying his dead father”.

AFP journalists saw several passenger carriages strewn across the tracks and surrounding farmland.

One carriage lay on its side beside the railway embankment, while another had been torn open by the force of the impact, exposing twisted metal, shattered seats and passengers’ belongings.

- Heavy machinery -

Rescue workers used cranes and heavy machinery to right overturned carriages as ambulances ferried the injured to nearby hospitals.

Villagers gathered around the cordoned-off wreckage, watching recovery operations continue into the evening.

One victim was a resident of the nearby village, according to local witness Reda Kamel Labib, who criticised rescue delays caused by inadequate transport infrastructure in the area.

First responders and passersby helped lift one of the victims out of the wreckage in a black body bag, AFP images showed.

Authorities said they had launched an investigation into the cause of the crash, which occurred in Giza’s Al-Ayyat area, 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 network – one of the largest in Africa – has suffered repeated deadly accidents.

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 ageing rail network.