Seven people were killed in a collision between a train and a school bus in northeast Egypt on Friday, according to the country's health ministry.

Twenty-six others were injured in the crash, which occurred on a motorway connecting the capital Cairo and the coastal city of Ismailia, health ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel-Ghaffar told Ahram Online.

The bus was hit by a cargo train while crossing the railway tracks at an unauthorised crossing some 50 kilometres northeast of Cairo, Al-Ahram Arabic news website said.

At least nine of those wounded are in a critical condition, the ministry spokesman added.

A number of those killed were children.

Accidents at railway crossings are regular occurences in Egypt; a deadly collision in Assiut in 2012 killed 51 people, mostly children, when a train hit a school bus, while in 2013, 30 people died when a minibus collided with a train just south of Cairo.

Experts blame lack of maintenance and the poor state of railway crossings for the accidents.