A passenger bus crash on a desert highway in Egypt’s South Sinai leaves 22 dead, including 10 Jordanian nationals, and 28 injured.
CAIRO: A passenger bus overturned on a desert highway in Egypt’s eastern Sinai Peninsula on Wednesday, killing 22 people and injuring 28 others, authorities said.
The crash occurred on the road connecting the Red Sea resort towns of Dahab and Nuweiba in South Sinai, a region known for its beaches, coral reefs and mountain landscapes that draw visitors from around the world.
Ten Jordanian nationals were among those killed, the kingdom’s state-run Al-Mamlaka television reported. It said the bus had been carrying 43 people, including 22 Jordanians.
Egypt’s health ministry raised an earlier death toll of 16 by six. It said that 20 ambulances were dispatched to the scene and those injured were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment.
Authorities did not immediately disclose what caused the accident.
AFP footage showed the overturned bus and its wreckage scattered along the roadside.
Car crashes are common in Egypt, and often blamed on reckless driving, poor maintenance and uneven law enforcement.
Last month, at least 18 people, many of them teenagers, were killed in northern Egypt when two pick-up trucks carrying agricultural day-labourers crashed.
Last year, nearly 6,000 people died in road accidents across the country, according to Egypt’s state statistics agency.
