A public bus and a heavy transport truck have collided on a desert highway in southwestern Egypt, killing 17 people and injuring 29 others.
A Health Ministry statement on Thursday said the accident occurred on Wednesday on the Assuit-Kharga highway, some 400 km southwest of the capital, Cairo, in New Valley province which shares a long border with Libya.
About 26 ambulances were dispatched to the scene to ferry the injured to hospitals, Reuters quoted the Health Ministry as saying.
It was not immediately clear how the accident occurred.
But a recent Reuters report said reckless driving, lax traffic rules and poor road conditions have caused many vehicular crashes in Egypt.
Road accidents left 7,101 people dead in Egypt in 2021, a 15.2% increase compared with 2020, it cited the statistics agency CAPMAS as saying in a 2022 report.
Writing by Tony Okerafor