Crash site has history of rail disasters – including country’s deadliestpublished at 16:50 GMT

16:50 GMT

Samantha Granville
Middle East reporter

Investigator collect evidence inside a burned out train carriage in the Giza Governorate in 2002Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption,

More than 300 people were killed in a fire on a train travelling through the Giza governorate in 2002

The site of Sunday’s accident in Al-Ayyat, in Egypt’s Giza governorate, has a long history of rail disasters.

It was the location of Egypt’s deadliest train tragedy.

In February 2002, a fire engulfed a passenger train travelling from Cairo to Luxor.

The train continued for around nine kilometres before coming to a halt. More than 370 people were officially reported killed, although some estimates put the toll considerably higher.

Two further crashes in the area in 2009 killed dozens more.