22 killed, 33 injured in car-truck collision in Egypt

Cairo : At least 22 people were killed and 33 injured in a car crash on Tuesday near the southern province of Minya in Egypt, local media reported.

The accident took place in the early morning when a passenger bus hit a stopped truck on a highway linking the capital of Cairo to the country's south, Arab News reported citing a statement of local authorities in Minya. "A passenger bus traveling to Cairo from the southern Province of Sohag crashed into the back of a truck parking on the side of the road for changing its tyres," Governor Osama Al Qady said.

The parked truck was changing tires on the roadside when the bus hit it in the city of Malawi in Minya province, about 220 kilometers (137 miles) south of Cairo, the statemnent added.

Following the incident, several ambulances rushed to the scene to transfer the injured to hospitals in Minya.

Road accidents are common in Egypt because of poorly maintained road infrastructure and loosely enforced traffic regulations. Crashes are mostly caused by speeding, bad roads or poor enforcement of traffic laws.

Over the past few years, Egypt has been upgrading its road network and built new roads and bridges to reduce traffic accidents but traffic accidents kill thousands every year in Egypt, which has a poor transportation safety record.