Two carriages of a Cairo-Mansoura train skidded off tracks on Wednesday evening near the Minya Al-Qamh station in the Nile Delta's Sharqiya governorate, leaving 15 passengers injured.

Train services between Cairo and Sharqiya were briefly halted until a crane lifted the derailed carriages, according to a statement by the Egyptian Ministry of Transport.

The Ministry of Health dispatched 33 ambulances to transfer the wounded to a nearby hospital, noting that six were discharged after receiving the necessary treatment.

It added that the rest suffered fractures, wounds, and bruises.

The prosecution opened an investigation into the accident in order to determine its causes.

The incident in Sharqiya comes only hours after twenty people were killed and three others injured earlier in the day when a passenger bus collided with a cement transport vehicle in Assiut.

It also occurred less than a month after 20 people were killed and 165 injured as two trains collided in the Tahta district in Sohag governorate, Upper Egypt.

Egypt's railway system has had a poor safety record for decades, with deadly collisions and accidents that are often blamed on poor maintenance and management becoming a frequent occurrence.

Officials have repeatedly stressed that billions of pounds and several years are needed to upgrade the country’s railway network to provide better service to the public and prevent deadly accidents.

The government has been implementing ambitious multi-billion projects to replace hundreds of ailing train carriages and modernise an obsolete signalling system.

Following the accident in Sohag, Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly vowed that the government would continue to upgrade railway projects to prevent such deadly train accidents.

However, Madbouly warned that similar accidents might occur until the government completes overhauling the railway system.