Egypt road accidents kill 28 including tourists

At least 28 people have been killed in two separate road crashes in Egypt, according to medical and security sources.The death toll in a collision between a minibus carrying workers and a truck rose to 22 after four people died of injuries sustained in the accident.

The collision took place on Saturday in the Suez Canal city of Port Said. The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.Private Egyptian newspaper al-Shorouk reported online that the truck hit the minibus, causing it to flip over. The bus was carrying garment factory workers on their way home at the time of the crash. 

The accident came only hours after two buses carrying tourists collided with a truck east of Cairo on the road to the Ain Sokhna resort on the Red Sea, according to a security official.

A medical source said two Malaysian women and an Indian man were killed along with three Egyptians - a bus driver, a tour guide and a security guard.At least 24 others were injured, several of them tourists and some left in serious condition, the medical source said without giving further details.

Traffic accidents are common in Egypt where many roads are poorly maintained and regulations are laxly enforced.But efforts by authorities to crack down on traffic violations, including speeding, appear to have borne fruit in recent years, with official figures showing a decline in road deaths.

In 2018 there were 8,480 road accidents compared with 11,098 the previous year, according to the bureau of statistics.Deaths from traffic accidents fell from more than 5,000 in 2016 to 3,747 the following year and 3,087 in 2018, official figures show.Ain Sokhna is a popular seaside resort town in the Suez governorate southeast of Cairo. It is also home to several petrochemical, ceramics and steel factories.