Speeding bus with tourists crashes in Egypt, killing 9

An Egyptian policeman holds a bloodstained pillow at the scene of a tourist bus crash near Abu Zenima, in the Sinai, Egypt, Thursday, May 1, 2008. A speeding tourist bus carrying dozens of Russians, other Europeans and Canadians overturned, rolled off an embankment and burst into flames Thursday on a desert highway in Egypt's Sinai peninsula, leaving at least nine passengers killed and about 30 wounded. (AP Photo/Ashraf Sweilam)

ABU ZENIMA, Egypt—A tourist bus speeding at 100 mph with Canadian and European tourists on board lost control when it hit a sharp curve Thursday on an Egyptian highway, rolled down an incline and burst into flames. Nine people were killed and about 30 injured.

Some of the dozens of tourists on board were asleep when the accident occurred before dawn Thursday, but others were awake and terrified as the driver picked up speed on the desert road in the Sinai Peninsula.

"The bus was going very fast and the road was in bad condition," said Diana Argentieri, a 27-year-old Italian survivor. "We were immediately scared by the speed."

She said the bus spun off the road and rolled over three or four times down the embankment before landing on a rocky spur. She and her friends made for an exit.

"We wanted to go back in to see if there was still somebody alive, but the bus was on fire," she said, adding she and other survivors had to jump 10 to 13 feet from the spur to avoid the flames.

"We had no choice, so we plucked up our courage and jumped. Immediately after that the bus exploded," Argentieri, a factory worker vacationing in Egypt with friends, told The Associated Press. She spoke by phone from a Sinai hospital where she was receiving stitches to her back and shoulder hours later.

About 30 people of the passengers suffered severe injuries, including severed or amputated limbs and heavy burns.

The blaze left the bus, which was carrying about 40 tourists, a burned-out husk. Many of the dead were severely burned, making it difficult to determine their identities.

Among the wounded was the driver, Ali Haridi. He said he lost control of the bus on the curve on the highway at Abu Zenima, an area about 40 miles southeast of the Suez Canal.

"I was surprised by the turn and I wasn't able to control the steering wheel, and I lost control and it rolled over," Haridi told the AP as he was taken into the hospital with burns and cuts.

A Russian with light injuries, Marina Litskaya, 34, said from a hospital in Sharm el-Sheik that she was sitting behind the driver before the bus crashed, and at one point looked over his shoulder and saw the speedometer dial at 100 mph.

Haridi did not explain his speeding.

Most of the passengers were asleep during the overnight trip, heading to Cairo, "and when we woke up the bus was turning upside-down," Argentieri said. "After that, it was hell."

"It all seems like a nightmare, but unfortunately it's real."

The bus was carrying Egyptians, Canadians, Britons, Italians, Russians and other tourists from Eastern Europe from the Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheik to the Egyptian capital, said Dr. Said Issa, director of emergency services in the Sinai.

Egypt has a history of serious bus and car crashes because of speeding, careless driving and poor road conditions. At least 8,000 people were killed in accidents in 2006, the most recent statistics available.

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Associated Press writer Ariel David contributed to this report from Rome.