At least 22 killed in a passenger bus crash in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula

CAIRO -- At least 22 people, including Egyptians and Jordanians, were killed Wednesday in a passenger bus crash in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, authorities in both countries said. Twenty-eight others were injured.

The accident happened on a road linking the tourist resorts of Dahab and Nuweiba in South Sinai province, the Egyptian Health Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said it deployed 20 ambulances to the scene to transport the dead and wounded to nearby hospitals. It didn’t elaborate on the victims’ nationalities.

The Jordanian Foreign Ministry said there were Jordanians among the casualties, without providing a toll.

The Amman-based Al-Mamlaka public broadcaster reported that 10 Jordanians were killed in the crash. It said the bus was bound to Amman from Cairo when it overturned on a road between Dahab and Nuweiba.

The Egyptian health ministry didn’t elaborate on the causes. Egyptian media, however, reported that the bus overturned after one of its tires blew out.

Deadly traffic accidents claim thousands of lives every year in Egypt, which has a poor transportation safety record. Speeding, bad roads and poor enforcement of traffic laws are the main reasons behind most of the crashes.

In January, 21 people were killed and 16 injured in a massive multi-car pile-up on a road near the southern province of Beni Suef.