It's Egypt's worst rail disaster since 2002.
According to witnesses about 25 ambulances rushed to the crash site, along with hundreds of bystanders and relatives anxious for news of passengers who might have been killed or injured.
The accident occurred near the town of Qalyoub, some 20km north of Cairo, official sources told the state news agency MENA.
They said one of the drivers had apparently ignored railway traffic signals.
A Reuters photographer at the scene said one of the trains had derailed and was on its side. It had split into four parts and there were signs of a fire, he said.
The crash happened when one train ran into the rear of another, causing it to derail and overturn.
It’s the worst railway accident in Egypt in four years; in 2002 360 people were killed after fire ripped through seven carriages of a crowded passenger train.
That accident was the worst in 150 years of Egyptian railway history, and led to the resignation of the transport minister and the head of the state railway system.
Today’s collision is the third major train crash in Egypt since February.
In May, 45 people were injured when a cargo train slammed into a stationary passenger train near the Nile Delta village of Alshat in the northern Egyptian
governate of Al-Sharqiya.
Three months earlier, 20 people were injured when two trains travelling in the same direction collided near the Mediterranean city of Alexandria. The second, faster train, ran into the back of the first when the driver failed to see it because of poor visibility.