CAIRO: Eight American tourists were killed and 21 injured on Sunday when their bus collided with a truck near the southern Egyptian city of Aswan, police and the official MENA news agency reported. The bus, which was carrying 37 tourists from the United States, was headed to the ancient Egyptian temples at Abu Simbel south of Aswan when it collided with a damaged truck parked on the side of the road, MENA said. A police official said six of the dead were women. The bus driver and a tourist guide were also injured in the crash, which took place early in the morning about 30 kilometers from Aswan. Four tourists were in critical condition, the same police official said, adding that the injured were taken to a military hospital in Aswan. The US embassy said in a statement that it was “deeply saddened by the traffic accident in Aswan that has led to deaths and injuries among American tourists.” It did not provide a specific number. It said the injured were being moved via military transport to Cairo. The police official said some of the injured tourists would be airlifted in the afternoon to a hospital in Cairo that often treats injured tourists. 79 tourists on board two other buses in the convoy were unharmed, MENA reported. The US State Department continually warns on its website that traveling on Egyptian highways can be dangerous. Approximately 6,000 people are killed on Egyptian motorways annually as a result of poor road conditions, bad driving and a lack of seatbelts. BM
