At least 15 killed in train collision near Cairo

AFP -  At least 15 people were killed and 24 others injured in a collision between two passenger trains on Saturday in Giza southwest of the Egyptian capital, witnesses and police said.

"The trains were travelling on the same track. One ran into the other as they headed towards Upper Egypt," a security services official told AFP.

Witnesses gave a death toll of 15, while a police official at the scene said it was likely to rise.

The crash took place in Al-Ayyat area of Giza, 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Cairo, when one train stopped unexpectedly and another one also heading south from the capital ploughed into it from behind, the security official said.

Al-Ayyat was the scene of Egypt's deadliest ever train crash when the bodies of at least 361 passengers were recovered from a train following a fire in February 2002.

In July 2008, at least 20 people died in a collision between a train and a bus near Marsa Matruh in northwest Egypt, while in August 2006 at least 58 Egyptians were killed and 144 wounded in a collision between two trains travelling on the same track.