At least seven people have died in a train crash near the Egyptian city of Giza, with more than 100 injured.

The country’s railway authority said two trains travelling south from Giza and Cairo collided, causing several carriages to derail and fall down an embankment.

Images from the scene showed people looking inside overturned carriages for injured passengers as a massive emergency response was launched.

Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi said he had ordered state authorities to “investigate the circumstances of the accident, and hold accountable anyone found to have been negligent”.

The public prosecutor’s office warned the death toll could rise.

The government said hospitals in the area had been put “on heightened alert” as they dealt with a massive influx of patients.

Egypt’s health minister Dr Khaled Abdel Ghaffar said people were being treated for broken bones and head injuries.

The driver of one of the trains was among those who died in the crash, the ministry confirmed.

The first train involved in the crash was travelling from Giza to Fayoum, south of Cairo, when it crashed into the rear of another service heading south from Cairo to Aswan, which was stationary on the tracks.

Images from the scene showed some carriages had overturned, with the body of at least one appearing to have split in two.

Trains between Giza and the Upper Egypt region were suspended as cranes were dispatched to remove the wrecked train
The collision occurred in the area between Kafr Ammar and Al-Raqqa stations in Al-Ayyat, close to where Egypt’s deadliest train tragedy occurred in February 2002, when a fire engulfed a passenger train travelling from Cairo to Luxor.

The train continued for around nine kilometres (5.6 miles) before coming to a halt.

In that incident, 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.

There were calls in Egypt on Sunday for the transport minister to resign over the latest deadly rail disaster.

Paraguay’s President Santiago Peña has been impeached and placed under house arrest.

Peña was arrested on Friday minutes after lawmakers, including from his own party, voted to remove him from office due to a crisis triggered by the collapse of Ueno Bank earlier this week.

He had offered to step down on Thursday, but the move to impeach him and charge him with misconduct rather than accept his resignation meant he was stripped of his lifetime Senate seat and the immunity granted to ex-presidents.

Peña, who until last year held shares in the company that owned the bank, has denied any wrongdoing.

The demise of the digital bank has left more than half of Paraguay’s population without access to their savings after it was seized by Paraguay’s central bank.

An estimated three million depositors remain unable to access their savings and pensions prompting widespread protests particularly in the capital, Asunción.

The impeachment charges that led to Peña’s removal alleged he had conflicts of interest, manipulated regulatory oversight, diverted pension funds, and participated in an institutional cover-up involving the central bank.

Peña is due to be questioned today (Saturday) over allegations of breach of trust, influence peddling, and misappropriation of funds, prosecutor Silvia Margarita Gonzalez Vester said.

Peña’s impeachment passed with 44 out of 45 senators voting in favour of it. One lawmaker was absent.

Afterwards, senate president Basilio Núñez said Peña was found guilty of “dereliction of duty”.

Paraguay’s Vice-President Pedro Alliana was then sworn in as interim President.

“Compatriots who are now going through a difficult time as a result of the financial collapse will be fully compensated,” said Alliana, who will serve as President until 2028.

Pedro Alliana takes the oath of office as interim President

Senator Rafael Filizzola said: “We are facing the biggest corruption scandal in our democratic history – a tremendous blow to the state, to private citizens, and to the country’s credibility and image.”

Analysts say Peña is likely to now be prosecuted over the bank’s collapse.

His defence lawyer Ricardo Preda described the allegations as a “reckless accusation” that was “irresponsible and opportunistic”.

In an address to the nation on Thursday, Peña said that he was sorry and that “it was never my intention to betray the trust you placed in me”.

A Kenyan court has sentenced the leader of a doomsday cult, Paul Mackenzie, to 200 years in prison for murdering 191 people, all but one of them children.

Alongside 27 others, Mackenzie was found guilty of the murders for instructing members of his cult to starve their children to death so they could “meet Jesus”.

Justice Diana Mochache said Mackenzie bore the “primary criminal culpability” for ordering his followers to fast to death, in one of Kenya’s deadliest episodes of religious extremism.

“The sentence is appropriate and just, to send an unmistakable message that such atrocities warrant the maximum penalties allowed by law,” the judge added.

The self-styled pastor was arrested in 2023 after the discovery of more than 400 bodies in shallow graves in Shakahola forest near the Kenyan coast. The sprawling investigation into the cases shocked Kenya and drew international attention.

Ahead of sentencing, prosecutors in the court in Mombasa had argued for the death penalty for Mackenzie because of the gravity of the crimes. Capital punishment has not been carried out in Kenya since 1987.

The prosecutors also cited what they described as Mackenzie’s lack of remorse for the crimes. They requested life sentences for his co-accused.

Before the hearing began on Friday morning, Francis Wanje, who lost eight relatives in Shakahola forest, including two grandchildren, told the BBC’s Newsday programme that he was “hoping for… a sentence which will match his [Mackenzie’s] deeds in the forest”.

Mackenzie and the co-accused have formally pleaded for mercy and asked for leniency from the court.

Before their conviction on 19 October, they had all pleaded not guilty and repeatedly insisted that nobody was forced to die.

Mackenzie’s followers believed he was “Jesus’s mouthpiece”, Justice Diana Mochache said as she delivered her eight-hour judgement last month.

Those who opposed Mackenzie’s teachings were beaten to death.

One of his co-accused said he had told his followers that anyone who “resisted the directive to fast must be forced to go to heaven through kicks and blows”.

Burials inside the forest where the cult was based were called “weddings” and those who died “were celebrated as having wedded with Jesus” the judge said.

The judge found that the deaths arose from an organised system, including religious teachings and directives that compelled followers to follow the deadly fasting.

Post-mortem results showed the cause of deaths to be starvation for most victims, while others died from suffocation, strangulation or head injuries.

The cause of death could not be determined for some, with their bodies having decomposed, while others died soon after their rescue as they were so emaciated.