Egypt’s deadliest train crash was in 2002, when more than 300 people were killed after a fire broke out on an overnight train travelling from Cairo to southern Egypt.
Images from the scene showed overturned carriages. The body of at least one carriage appeared to have split in two.
Some passengers were trapped inside a carriage of the stationary train and died, according to an account from the scene.
The trains were moving in the same direction when they crashed outside the city. Several carriages derailed.
The transport ministry confirmed that the driver of one of the trains was among the dead.
People were seen looking inside the wreckage for injured passengers as a large emergency response began.
At least seven people were killed and 112 injured when two passenger trains collided about 76 kilometres south of Cairo, Egypt’s health ministry said. A witness, Gamal, said he saw about 80 of the injured taken by ambulance to hospital. The crash happened near Giza. The railway authority said the trains were travelling south from Giza and Cairo when they collided, sending several carriages off the tracks and down an embankment.
Emergency teams and cranes were sent to clear the wreckage and restore train services as soon as possible, the railway authority said.