Twenty killed in two separate road accidents in Egypt

At least 20 people including 18 school children were killed and 36 others injured in two separate road accidents in northern Egypt on Wednesday.

18 school children were killed and as many injured when a bus they were travelling in collided with a truck in Beheira governorate.

Police officials said the school bus carrying students and a truck carrying wood collided on the Alexandria agricultural road near Abu Hummus town.

According to news website ahramonline, the bus driver allegedly attempted to dodge a car only to hit another vehicle and the truck which led to the explosion in its gas tank. Some of the injured students are said to be in critical condition.

Following the accident, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi decided to send three helicopters equipped with medical supplies to the spot to carry out rescue and relief work.

In a separate incident, a truck collided with a tour bus in Kafr Al-Zayat in the central Nile Delta, setting the bus on fire and leaving two dead and 18 injured.

The accidents came just three days after a road accident claimed the lives of ten university students in Sohag Governorate in Upper Egypt.

Egypt has one of the world's highest accident rates due to careless driving, and poor road and vehicle conditions. The World Health Organisation (WHO) ranks Egypt the world's tenth worst country in terms of road accidents.

A recent report by the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics said there were 15,578 car accidents in Egypt last year, up 0.4 per cent from the year before, which claimed the lives of 6,716 people and injured 22,411 others.