A British tourist who survived yesterday's Luxor hot air balloon disaster was forced to watch as his wife and 18 other passengers were killed when fire engulfed their basket as they flew 1,000ft above the ground.

Michael Rennie – the only tourist to survive what was described as the worst catastrophe in the history of ballooning – managed to escape largely unharmed after the balloon encountered difficulties on a dawn flight close to the Valley of the Kings in southern Egypt.

But the other passengers – including his wife, Yvonne, and another British man who later died of his injuries – were trapped when the balloon lurched up into the sky following an attempted landing.

Witnesses described seeing tourists leaping to their deaths, their clothes on fire. Doctors at Luxor International Hospital said that many of those who died suffered severe burns and massive internal injuries.

Crying

"Everybody in the village was crying after what we saw," said Hussein Yasin, a 40-year-old village teacher said.

"We tried to save some of the people but there was nothing we could do."

After meeting their fellow passengers – who included tourists from France, Belgium, Hungary, Hong Kong and Japan – Mr Rennie and his wife lifted off with their Egyptian pilot into the sky above the patchwork of farms and pharaonic monuments below.

Eight other balloons also set off at the same time but, shortly after dawn, at around 7am, one encountered difficulties. Last night there were conflicting reports about exactly what happened, but state investigators said a fire erupted in the balloon's basket after landing ropes became tangled around one of its gas tubes.

Luxor's governor said that at this point the balloon's basket was around five metres from the ground. According to Hussein Yasin, one of the passengers – possibly Mr Rennie – then managed to escape, leaping into the field below.

Investigators then described the balloon shooting upwards sharply as hot air rushed into the balloon, which by this stage was unbalanced. At an altitude of around 1,000ft one of the gas canisters exploded, sending it plunging down where it landed in a sugar cane field. Some of the passengers leapt to their deaths on the way down, as jets of flaming gas engulfed the wicker cabin.

Others appear to have remained trapped in the balloon as it careered into the cornfield below.

In all, 19 people were killed: nine from Hong Kong, four from Japan, two Britons, two French nationals, a Hungarian and an Egyptian.

Witnesses who saw the accident described the surrounding farmland as being littered with bodies after the balloon came crashing down.

Apart from Mr Rennie, only the Egyptian pilot survived but reportedly suffered 60pc burns. Another Briton underwent five hours of surgery in Luxor, with surgeons attempting to treat a series of severe abdominal wounds, but he could not be saved.

According to Dr Mohammad Abdullah, head of the emergency ward, the man probably fell from a height of around 50 metres. (© Independent News Service)

Irish Independent