Twelve university students killed and 33 injured in Egypt bus accident

Bus carrying students from campus back to university residence overturned east of Cairo

A network of new roads in the eastern suburbs of Cairo. Reuters

At least 12 university students were killed and 33 injured when the bus carrying them back to their residence overturned on Monday east of the Egyptian capital Cairo, the Health Ministry said in a statement.

It said the bus overturned while making the journey between the Galala University campus in the hills overlooking the Red Sea city of Ain Al Sukhna, where the students' residence is located.

Most of the 12 students who died attended the university's medical school.

The ministry did not say why or how the bus overturned, but the private Sada Al Balad news channel reported that initial investigations concluded the bus driver was speeding when he lost control of the vehicle.

The injured were taken to a hospital in the city of Suez to the north of Ain Al Sukhna, according to the ministry, but it had no word on their condition.

Thousands of Egyptians die every year in road accidents, mostly blamed on speeding.

Road accidents killed 7,101 people in Egypt in 2021, a 15.2 per cent increase from 2020, according to the state statistics agency Capmas.

Monday's deadly accident came just two days after three people were killed and scores injured in a collision between two passenger trains in Zagazig, in the Nile Delta north of Cairo.