MOSCOW, May 1 (RIA Novosti) - At least nine people died and some 28 were injured after a bus carrying tourists from Russia, Ukraine, Italy and Canada overturned and burst into flames in Egypt's Sinai peninsula on Thursday, a police source said.
A representative from the Russian insurance company, Rosno, said on the Moscow-based 'Business FM' radio station that two Russians had died in the accident. The information has not yet been officially confirmed.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that according to the latest data, 16 Russians were injured in the crash.
The bus was thought to have been carrying 37 tourists. All the injured have been taken to hospital. An Egyptian police source earlier told the media that, "two Egyptian police, 14 Russians, two Canadians, an Italian, and three Ukrainians," were known to have been injured in the accident. The U.K. Foreign Office said however that four Britons were among the injured.
Russia's vice-consul in Egypt, Yusup Abakarov, said that of the injured Russian tourists, four had been hospitalized.
"They are in a stable condition, their lives are not in danger," he said.
The bus overturned at a sharp bend on a desert highway at Abu Zenima, about 40 miles (65 kms) southeast of the Suez Canal. It was traveling from the popular tourist resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to the Egyptian capital, Cairo. The vehicle was owned by the Azur Travel company.
Such incidents are frequent on Egyptian roads due to a combination of speeding and poor road conditions. Some 8,000 people die annually each year in the country in road accidents.
