BY SAMY MAGDY, Associated Press
CAIRO (AP) — A tourist bus collided with a truck on a highway in southern Egypt and burst into flames on Wednesday, killing at least 10 people including four French and a Belgian, authorities said.
The crash happened some 55 kilometers (34 miles) south of the ancient city of Luxor, as it was travelling to the temples of Esna on the west bank of the Nile River, provincial authorities said in a statement.
Along with the tourists, five Egyptians were killed in the crash. At least 14 others were injured, including eight from France and six from Belgium, they said. The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.
Many bodies were charred, and the injured suffered from burns, bruises and fractures, according to a health official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.
Aswan Provincial Governor Ashraf Attia said the injured were taken to hospitals and were in stable condition.
Wednesday’s accident came five days after a bus crashed on a highway near the Red Sea, killing three including two Polish tourists.
Deadly traffic accidents claim thousands of lives every year in Egypt, which has a poor transportation safety record. The crashes and collisions are mostly caused by speeding, bad roads or poor enforcement of traffic laws.
Egypt’s official statistics agency says there were around 10,000 road accidents in 2019, the most recent year for which statistics are available, leaving over 3,480 dead. In 2018, there were 8,480 car accidents, causing over 3,080 deaths.