8 tourists killed in Egypt bus accident

Eight people have died after a bus carrying North American and European tourists crashed and caught fire in Egypt's Sinai peninsula.

Dr. Said Issa says the bus overturned at a sharp curve in the highway as it headed from the Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheik to the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

The bus was carrying around 40 tourists from Canada, Italy, Russia and the Ukraine. Issa says it was completely burned in the accident Thursday.

Issa, who is the head of emergency services in the Sinai, says seven people were killed and 16 wounded, many of them with severe burns. He did not immediately know the nationalities of the dead, but says the death toll could rise.

The bus was carrying around 40 tourists, mostly from Canada, Italy and Eastern Europe from the Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheik to the Egyptian capital, Cairo, said Dr. Said Issa, director of emergency services in the Sinai.

It overturned at a sharp curve on a desert highway at Abu Zenima, an area about 40 miles southeast of the Suez Canal, and then a fire swept through the bus, Issa said.

At least seven passengers were killed. The 16 injured were rushed to nearby hospitals, Issa said. He did not know the nationalities of the dead, but said the toll could increase.

Many of the wounded were severely burned. The cause of the accident was not immediately known, security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to talk to the press.

Ali Haridi, an Egyptian who was sitting near the driver when the accident occurred, said the bus flipped and he was so disoriented "I couldn't tell where the driver was."