The ENR said in a statement that some of the carriages went off the rails when the train was between El Sallam and Bostan stations, killing a woman who was nearby.

The derailed carriages were removed and train traffic has returned to normal.

A technical committee has been formed to investigate the incident.

In recent years, Egypt’s railway lines have witnessed numerous accidents, with dozens killed over the past year in separate incidents in different governorates. A train collision in March last year in Upper Egypt’s Sohag killed 19 and injured 185.

However, the government has announced a plan to completely renovate the entirety of the country’s railway system and replace all old carriages and tractors with either upgraded or new ones.

The plan also involves upgrading railway signalling systems for higher safety, improving workshops and supplying them with modern equipment, and installing automatic train control with a speed control mechanism to respond to any emergency.

The country’s statistics agency said in November that Egypt saw a 37.7 percent drop in the number of train accidents in 2020, reporting 898 accidents. The Central Delta in northern Egypt alone accounted for 24.6 percent of total accidents that year.

The number of deaths from train accidents dropped by 43.6 percent in 2020 to 296, while injuries dropped by 40.9 percent to 525, CAPMAS added.