Warning some viewers may find this footage upsetting The moment the hot air balloon catches fire then crashes to the ground near Luxor, Egypt guardian.co.uk

Egyptian authorities have launched an investigation after a hot air balloon crashed 1,000 feet to the ground, killing 19 tourists who had taken a sunrise flight near the ancient city of Luxor.

Witnesses described seeing people leaping out of the balloon as it was on fire. The casualties included British, French, Belgian, Hungarian and Japanese nationals and nine tourists from Hong Kong, the Luxor governor, Ezzat Saad, told reporters.

Yvonne Rennie, from Perth in Scotland, died and her husband Michael was being treated in hospital in Luxor, where he was said to be in a stable condition.

Another Briton, Joe Bampton, 40, and his Hungarian-born girlfriend Suzanna Gyetvai, 34, were among those who died in the crash, in what appears to be the worst hot air balloon disaster on record.

A British tourist and the Egyptian pilot, named locally as Momin Mourad Ali, who survived with 70% burns, were the only people to have survived.

The balloon is believed to have caught fire as it was coming in to land at about 7am on Tuesday. The pilot and a British passenger jumped out, before the ballon ascended swiftly. Flames spread quickly and ignited a gas canister, which exploded.

The balloon then plunged 1,000 feet into into a sugar cane field west of Luxor, which is 320 miles (510km) south of the capital, Cairo.

The tragedy is thought to be the world's worst ballooning accident. It dealt a fresh blow to Egypt's tourism industry, which is reeling after two years of political unrest since protests that led to the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We can confirm the tragic deaths of two British nationals and one British resident following a hot air balloon crash in Luxor, Egypt earlier today.

Police and rescuers inspect the wreckage of the balloon. Photograph: Reuters

"The next of kin have been informed and our thoughts are with them and their families at this difficult time. We are providing them with consular assistance. We can also confirm that one other British national was involved and is in a stable condition.

"We have had consular officials in Luxor since early this morning who have been focused on providing consular assistance and supporting the Egyptian authorities. Our Ambassador to Egypt has met the injured British national and has offered our assistance."

"What happened in Luxor this morning is a terrible tragedy and the thoughts of everyone in Thomas Cook are with our guests, their family and friends," said Peter Fankhauser, chief executive of Thomas Cook UK and Continental Europe. He said the firm was providing "full support" to the victims' families. The UK Foreign Office said it was making urgent inquiries.

Egypt's civil aviation minister, Wael el-Maadawi, suspended hot air balloon flights and flew to Luxor to lead the investigation into the crash.

The Egyptian pilot was also being treated in hospital on Tuesday. Rescue workers gathered the remains (video) of the dead from the field where the charred remnants of the balloon, gas canisters and other pieces of wreckage landed.

A balloon flies over the Ramesseum temple near Luxor. Photo: Patrick Frilet/Rex Features

Mohamed Youssef, a pilot with Luxor-based Alaska Balloons, said his own balloon was airborne 100 metres from the crash, three or four minutes from landing.

He told the Guardian the fire started when the balloon was 3 metres from the ground and was caused by a leak in one of the four gas cylinders. Once the fire had begun, the pilot and one British passenger leapt to safety. This affected the balance of the balloon, which in turn sent more heat into the balloon's "envelope" and caused it to rise rapidly into the air, he said.

"When the balloon was at about 100 feet, I saw people jumping. I saw about five or six people jumping," he said. Youssef said some of the passengers were killed on contact with land, while others died from burns.

The balloon began to descend again and on reaching the ground there was a pause of around 15 seconds before one of the remaining four cylinders exploded, causing a loud blast.



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Youssef said he was a close friend of the pilot whom his father had visited in hospital and been told by a doctor that he had suffered from 70% burns. The pilot could talk and said his head hurt and there was a problem with his leg.

Youssef's uncle, Alaa Mahmoud, sales manager of Luxor-based balloon company Magic Horizon, said he believed the explosion happened when ground crews tried to anchor the balloon and the ropes hanging from the basket became entangled in the leads of the gas cylinders. The sharpness of the ropes, he claimed, caused the leads to be severed, which in turn sparked the fire.

Associated Press quoted a state prosecutor saying a landing cable got caught around a helium tube causing the fire to start.

Cherry Tohamy, an Egyptian living in Kuwait who was on holiday in Luxor, told the BBC her balloon was landing when she heard an explosion and saw flames from a balloon above.

"Our pilot told us that the balloon had hit a high pressure electrical cable and a cylinder on board exploded," she said. "People were jumping out of the balloon from about the height of a seven-storey building."

Luxor, which stands on the banks of the river Nile and on the site of the ancient city of Thebes, is a major destination for tourists visiting its many remains and monuments. But tourism is down by 22% since 2010, and brings in 25% less revenue than it did that year. Luxor's hotels are currently about 25% full in what is supposed to be the peak of the winter season.

Balloon trips, usually at sunrise over the Karnak and Luxor temples as well as the Valley of the Kings, are popular with visitors but concerns have been raised previously about their safety.

In April 2009, 16 people were hurt, including two British women, when a balloon crashed during a tour of Luxor. The balloon was believed to have hit a mobile phone transmission tower near the banks of the Nile. After the crash early morning hot air balloon flights over the Valley of the Kings were suspended for six months while safety measures were tightened up. There were at least four other non-fatal crashes that year involving tourists, including three on one day, and there were also crashes in 2007 and 2008.