Death toll in Egypt's train accident rises to 15

"The number of victims of Beheira train crash mounted to 15 dead and 40 wounded so far," MENA quoted the Transport Ministry's spokesman Mohamed Ezz as saying

At least 15 people were killed and 40 injured on Wednesday in a collision between two trains in Beheira province, north of the capital Cairo, the Egyptian Health Ministry said in a statement.

"The number of victims of Beheira train crash mounted to 15 dead and 40 wounded so far," MENA quoted the Transport Ministry's spokesman Mohamed Ezz as saying.

Transport Minister Hesham Arafat hurried to the accident site to oversee developments, according to the Egyptian state TV.

Beheira security chief Alaa El-Din Abdel-Fattah explained earlier on Wednesday that the accident took place as two cabins derailed from a passenger train and hit a cargo train in Kom Hamada district of Beheira. 

Health Ministry's spokesman Khaled Megahed said that more than 30 ambulances have rushed to the crash site to move the injured people to nearby hospitals.

"They raised the alert to utmost degree in the province's hospitals of Damanhour, Wady al-Natroun and Kafr al-Dawwar to receive any cases," Megahed said in the statement.

Egypt's public prosecutor assigned an engineering committee to find out the reasons behind the crash.

Egypt has witnessed a number of deadly train accidents over the past few years in which hundreds were killed and injured.

Last August, the collision of two trains in the coastal province of Alexandria left at least 49 dead and more than 100 injured.