Egyptian prosecutors on Sunday ordered the jailing of four people in connection with a train collision that killed more than 40 people and injured scores two days earlier, the country's official Middle East News Agency reported.
The drivers of the two trains involved in the crash and two of their aides are to be remanded for 15 days pending further investigations, the agency said.
The collision occurred in the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria on Friday when a passenger train coming from Cairo to Alexandria rammed into the rear of another waiting at a station, the Transport Ministry said in a statement.
Transport Minister Hesham Arafat said on Saturday that a manual rail operation system was a contributing factor to the collision, one of Egypt's deadliest in recent years.
"Initial indications show that the collision is attributed to the reliance on humans for the railways operation as well as the lack of infrastructure development over decades," Arafat was quoted as saying by the English online edition of state-run newspaper Al-Ahram.
Local media blamed the tragedy on an error in the shifting rail system that directs trains in the area.
There were conflicting reports about the deaths resulting from the crash.
State television said 49 people were killed in the accident, while the Health Ministry put the deaths at 42.
Egypt has seen several rail tragedies in recent years. In November 2012, 49 people were killed when a school bus collided with a train in southern Egypt.
The country's worst rail disaster took place in 2002 when a passenger train caught fire, killing more than 360 people.
Passengers on a train, which slowed down at the scene of a fatal rail collision, look at the wreckage at Khorshid, on the outskirts of Alexandria.
