At least 52 killed in Egypt bus crash Agence France-Presse

Published: Sunday December 14, 2008





Print This Email This DAHRUT, Egypt (AFP)  At least 52 Egyptians were killed when their bus plunged into a canal south of Cairo on Sunday in the deadliest road accident in Egypt in two decades, officials said.



More than 60 people were in the public bus when it swerved into the canal to avoid an oncoming truck as it travelled on the main highway between the Nile city of Minya to Cairo, a security official said.



"Fifty-two bodies have been recovered," the official told AFP, adding that 10 passengers were taken to hospital with injuries.



Many university students were among the dead, and rescue workers were searching the waters of the Ibrahimiya canal for survivors and victims, the official said.



At least 20 ambulances rushed to the crash site along with local residents offering their help after the accident near the village of Dahrut, about 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Cairo, an AFP correspondent reported.



All the dead had drowned before they could be reached by rescue workers, a hospital official told AFP.



It was the deadliest road accident in Egypt since 1987, when 63 Egyptians were killed when a bus and a train collided.



Police have detained both the truck driver and the bus driver for questioning, a police official told AFP.



Poor road conditions and lax traffic regulations in Egypt cause thousands of accidents every year and a new highway code came into force in August with the aim of improving road safety.



Road accidents kill about 6,000 people and cause 30,000 injuries each year, also because of poor upkeep of vehicles, according to the transport ministry.



Last week, 15 Coptic students were killed when their bus overturned while travelling from Minya to the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.



Eight people, including six schoolgirls, were killed in September when a truck plunged into a river in the Nile Delta province of Sharqiya.



