At least 19 people, most of them Asian and European tourists, died yesterday when a hot-air balloon caught fire and crashed near the ancient Egyptian town of Luxor after a mid-air gas explosion, officials said.
The balloon came down in farmland a few kilometres from the Valley of the Kings and pharaonic temples popular with tourists. Rescue workers gathered the dead from the field where the charred remains of the balloon, gas canisters and wreckage landed.
One Egyptian was also killed, health minister Mohamed Mostafa Hamed said, listing the other victims as tourists from Japan, China, France, Britain and Hungary. Earlier, officials had said all the dead were foreigners.
The balloon crashed on the west bank of the Nile river, where many of the area’s historical sites are located.
Konny Matthews, assistant manager of Luxor’s al Moudira hotel, said she heard an explosion at about 7 am. The deaths were caused by burns and injuries sustained in the fall, said Mohamed Mustafa, a doctor at the hospital where the injured were treated.
The pilot survived by jumping from the basket. – (Reuters)