Eight American tourists were killed and 21 were injured on Sunday when their bus collided with a truck near the southern Egyptian city of Aswan, police and the official MENA news agency said.
The bus, which was carrying 37 tourists from the United States, was headed to the ancient Egyptian Abu Simbel temples when it collided with a damaged truck parked on the side of the road, MENA said.
A police official said six of the dead were women. The bus driver and a tourist guide were also injured in the crash, which occurred early in the morning about 30 kilometres (18.6 miles) from Aswan.
Four tourists were in critical condition, the police official said, adding that the injured were taken to a military hospital in Aswan.
Some of the wounded, he said, were to be airlifted in the afternoon to a hospital in Cairo that often treats injured tourists.
Seventy-nine tourists on board two other buses in the convoy were unharmed, MENA reported.
A US embassy press official said the mission was aware of the accident and would provide consular assistance to the tourists and their families but did not provide any toll.
Traffic accidents occur frequently in Egypt, often because of poor road condition and lax regulations.
The government estimates that there are 8,000 road accidents a year in the country.
The US State Department warns on its website that travelling on Egyptian highways can be dangerous. Embassy officials are prohibited from travelling outside Cairo after dark because of driving hazards.
Eighteen French tourists were injured when their bus overturned on the same two-lane desert road in January.
The 3,000 year-old granite Abu Simbel temples are a popular tourist attraction.
They were relocated to their present location, about 300 kilometres from Aswan, in the 1960s to prevent them from being submerged by rising waters from the Aswan Dam which was under construction.
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Married Malala
Malala Yousafzai is enjoying married life, her father said.
The 24-year-old married Pakistan cricket executive Asser Malik last year in a small ceremony in the UK.
Ziauddin Yousafzai told The National his daughter was ‘very happy’ with her husband.