Road accident leaves 14 dead in Egypt

Fourteen people were killed and 25 injured after a public transport bus collided with a heavy transport truck on a desert highway in southwestern Egypt on Wednesday, medical and security sources said.

The accident occurred on Assuit-Kharga highway, around 400 km (250 miles) southwest of Cairo, in New Valley province that shares a long border with neighbouring Libya, the sources said.

Seventeen ambulances were dispatched to the scene to ferry the injured to hospitals, state news agency MENA quoted New Valley governor Mohamed el-Zamlout as saying.

It was not immediately clear how the accident occurred.

Reckless driving, lax traffic rules and poor road conditions cause many road crashes in Egypt.

Egypt's road accidents left 7,101 people dead in 2021, marking a 15.2 percent increase compared with 2020, the country's statistics agency CAPMAS said in a report last year. 

(Reuters)