Tourist Bus Collision Kills 38 People And Injures 41 People In Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh

At least 38 people were killed and 41 people were injured on Friday after two buses carrying tourists collided in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh area in the Sinai Peninsula, a local news agency reported.

Officials present at the location of the accident were trying to extract the bodies from the wreckage and have not yet determined an exact death toll, Al Ahram reported, citing health officials. Nearly 30 ambulances reached the spot and the injured passengers were taken to local hospitals. The buses were reportedly carrying 80 passengers and all of those killed were Egyptian nationals. Other reports, including from the BBC, estimated that 33 people had been killed in the accident.

One of the buses was headed toward Cairo from Sharm el-Sheikh, a beach resort town on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, when it collided with the other bus, which was moving in the opposite direction, BBC reported, citing Mena, a state-run news agency. The route was reportedly closed for nearly three hours after the accident, to allow easy access to teams of rescuers and investigators.

Among the 80 passengers on both buses, four were foreign tourists -- two people from Saudi Arabia, one person from Yemen and another from Ukraine -- and all of them are reportedly being treated for injuries.

According to CBC News, nearly 13,000 people were killed in road accidents in Egypt last year.