Egypt's parliament has summoned Transport Minister Kamel el-Wazir for questioning after a train collision south of Cairo killed seven people and injured more than 125, in the latest deadly accident on the country's ageing railway network.

The collision happened on Sunday, 8 November, in the al-Ayyat district of Giza province, when a train travelling from Giza to Fayoum ran into the back of a stationary train on the Cairo to Aswan route between Kafr Ammar and Al-Raqqa stations. Several carriages derailed, and dozens of ambulances were sent to the scene. Egypt's health ministry said seven people were killed and 112 injured, while later official figures put the number of injured at more than 125. The driver of the Giza to Fayoum train was among those killed.

Parliament demands accountability

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi ordered an urgent investigation and said anyone found negligent should be held accountable. Parliament's Transport and Communications Committee summoned el-Wazir to an emergency session on Tuesday to examine the circumstances of the crash and what must change to prevent another.

Opposition MPs used the session to demand political accountability, with some calling for the transport minister to be questioned in parliament and others going further and demanding the dismissal of the whole government. MPs also want a detailed breakdown of how the Transport Ministry spent loans taken out in 2026, and how much of that money went to safety, signalling and maintenance. The ministry says about $37 billion was allocated to transport investment between 2014 and 2024.

Al-Ayyat's long record of rail disasters

Al-Ayyat, a major corridor for trains travelling between Cairo and southern Egypt, has seen repeated fatal accidents. A fire there in 2002 killed more than 370 people, a collision in 2009 killed 15, and three separate collisions in 2016 killed 14 people in total.

Investigators are still establishing why the Cairo to Aswan train was standing on the main track and whether the second train's driver received a warning in time. A parliamentary committee official said railway signals had issued a stop instruction, but it remained unclear whether the driver received it early enough to stop. CNN and 234Radio reported the crash and the parliamentary response.