Seven killed in Egypt tour-bus crash

Seven Cypriot tourists were killed when the bus they were travelling in blew a front tyre on a mountain road in Egypt and crashed in a ravine today, police said.

The bus, which was carrying 13 Cypriots, careered off the road that leads to St Catherine’s Monastery in south Sinai, the Cypriot ambassador to Egypt, Phaedon Anastasiou, told the private Cypriot TV channel Ant 1.

Speaking in Cairo, Mr Anastasiou said he did not know what caused the minibus to leave the road.

But police said a front tyre burst and the vehicle careered off the road and rolled down the ravine.

Four of the seven dead were members of the same family, Sotos Zakheos, the Cypriot Foreign Ministry’s director-general, told local television channels later today.

Dimos Paisios, his wife Eliada and their two daughters Maria and Stella were killed. Three other Paisios children had been taken to hospital, but their injuries were not serious.

Mr Zakheos confirmed police reports that six Cypriots on the bus had been injured. Earlier the ambassador had said there were three injured.

The Cypriots were returning from the monastery to Sharm el-Sheik, the Red Sea resort where they had been staying, police said.

The monastery stands at the bottom of Mount Sinai, where the Biblical figure Moses is said to have received the Ten Commandments from God.