53 killed in Egyptian bus crash
A bus packed with passengers travelling along a narrow road in southern Egypt plunged into an irrigation canal, killing 53 people today, government and security officials said.
Minya Governor Ahmed Diaa said the bus swerved to avoid an oncoming pickup truck near a village close to the city of Minya some 133 miles south of Cairo.
The accident took place early today at the end of a major Muslim holiday, when inter-city roads are crowded with returning vacationers.
A prosecution team is on the scene investigating the accident.
Mr Diaa initially put the toll at 36. But rescue efforts continued hours after the crash and a security official later said that another 17 bodies were pulled out of the waterway. Some nine others were taken to hospital in a southern Egypt hospital.
Egypt has a history of serious bus and car crashes because of speeding, careless driving and poor road conditions. At least 8,000 people were killed in accidents in 2006, the most recent statistics available.
Today’s incident is one of the worst road accidents in recent months. A string of fatal accidents and fires have fuelled Egyptian anger at the government because of the belief that many of the incidents are due to official negligence or poor infrastructure.
