A tourist bus and a truck collided on Tuesday, 20 October 2026, on the desert road linking Cairo with Asyut, about 320 kilometres south of the capital. Egypt's state newspaper Al-Ahram, cited by AFP, reported 13 people dead and 34 injured. The injured were taken to a hospital in Giza, on the west bank of the Nile. An earlier count from the Egyptian Ministry of Health, which described its figures as preliminary, gave at least 12 dead and 30 injured and placed the crash near Dahshur, about 40 kilometres south of Cairo. The cause of the crash is still under investigation.
Reports described the front section of the bus as torn away and passenger seats scattered along the edge of the road. An AFP correspondent saw a crane lifting the bus while authorities worked to clear the highway. Debris from the bus was visible on the back of the truck, and the site was cordoned off over a wide area. Passenger nationalities had not been disclosed.
Health Minister Jaled Abdelghafar ordered that all necessary care be provided to the injured, according to a statement the ministry posted on social media. The ministry also expressed condolences to the families of the victims. Hospitals in the area were placed on maximum alert because of the large number of casualties. The ministry said the toll was still preliminary.
Egypt's statistics agency recorded nearly 6,000 road deaths across the country in the past year, and the figure has been rising from year to year. Reckless driving, poor vehicle maintenance and uneven enforcement of traffic rules are often cited as causes. AFP noted that accidents are frequent partly because vehicles and roads are in poor technical condition.
In August, at least 18 people, many of them children, were killed in northern Egypt when two trucks carrying farm workers collided. In early September, a bus accident in the mountainous Sinai peninsula killed 22 people, including 10 Jordanian citizens. The collision near Cairo is the latest deadly road accident reported this year.
The casualty figures are described as preliminary, and the reports have not yet been reconciled into a single count. The nationalities of the passengers are still unknown. Investigators have not published a cause for the collision, and further updates on the victims are awaited.
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Al-Ahram reported 13 deaths and 34 injuries after a tourist bus hit a truck on the desert road to Asyut. A preliminary Egyptian health ministry count had put the toll at 12 dead and 30 injured.
AI text based on reports by TVP Info, rmf24.pl, Ειδήσεις and other publishers. Published .