CAIRO: Twelve people died on Sunday when their bus collided with a truck near the resort city of Hurghada in eastern Egypt, the health ministry said.

In a statement, it said “12 people died and 30 others were wounded and taken to nearby hospitals”.

A court official told AFP that prosecutors had opened an inquiry into the accident on the road between Hurghada and Ras Gharib, along the Red Sea coast.

The crash happened just days after 20 people were killed when their minibus flipped and plunged into a canal in the Nile Delta.

Egypt’s roads are notoriously dangerous and often badly maintained, while drivers often break speed limits and other traffic rules.

The country, with 104 million inhabitants, saw 7,000 deaths in traffic accidents last year.