19 tourists killed in Egypt balloon explosion

 

A hot air balloon exploded and plunged to earth at Egypt’s ancient temple city of Luxor during a sunrise flight on Tuesday, killing up to 19 tourists, including Asians and Europeans, sources said.

The balloon carrying 21 tourists from Hong Kong, Japan, France, Britain and Hungary was flying at 300 metres (1,000 feet) when it caught fire and exploded, a security official said.

The pilot and one tourist survived by jumping out of the basket moments before it hit the ground, said an employee at the company operating the balloon, Sky Cruise. Both were taken to hospital.

“This is terrible, just terrible,” the employee told African France Presse by telephone, declining to give her name. “We don’t yet know what happened exactly or what went wrong.”

Luxor Governor Ezzat Saad imposed an immediate ban on all hot air balloon flights in the province as Prime Minister Hisham Qandil ordered an investigation into the accident.

Security services cordoned off the scene of the crash in Luxor’s dense sugar cane fields, as police and residents inspected the charred remains of the balloon.

“There was a terrifying sound when the balloon exploded,” one resident, Ahmed, 40, told AFP.

“Bodies engulfed in flames were falling out of the balloon,” said Youssef al-Tayyeb, another resident who witnessed the accident.

The balloon had been floating over the west bank of Luxor, one of Egypt’s most renowned archaeological sites and home to the famous Valley of the Kings and the grand Temple of Hatshepsut, when it exploded.

There was confusion over the exact death toll and the tourists nationalities, with different official bodies giving conflicting figures and details.

An Egyptian security official said 19 tourists from Hong Kong, Japan, Britain, France and Hungary had died. The health ministry put the toll at 18 dead.

Along with the confirmed deaths of two French tourists and two Britons, nine of those killed were thought to be from from Hong Kong, and four from Japan.