CAIRO: Two trains collided at a station in northern Egypt Monday, derailing four carriages and injuring 45 people, police said. None of the injured was in serious condition and all were treated at a local hospital, a police official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press. The crash took place in Belbeis, a town in the Sharqiya province of the Nile Delta, when a freight train traveling to Cairo from Zagazig, 80 km northeast of Cairo, failed to yield to a passenger train traveling the same route in the opposite direction, police said. The driver of the freight train told police he tried to stop but that his brakes wouldn t work properly. The force of the crash knocked four carriages off the tracks, spilling wheat over the tracks and blocking all traffic through the station, police said. Egypt has a history of serious train accidents blamed on poorly maintained facilities. The deadliest was when fire tore through a crowded passenger train south of Cairo on Feb. 20, 2002, killing 370 people. AP
