MINYA: Sixteen people, including six children, died Saturday when a microbus they were riding in fell off a rickety ferry and sank in the Nile River in southern Egypt, security and local officials said.
The accident happened because the bus driver did not use the emergency brakes to prevent the vehicle from moving as the ferry carried it from the river’s east bank to the west bank near the village of Deir Mawas in Minya province about 209 km south Cairo, said Minya police chief Mahmoud Noureddin.
The microbus driver survived the incident by jumping out of the vehicle at the last minute, but all of the passengers perished, said Noureddin. Rescue workers retrieved 13 bodies and were still searching for three others Saturday evening, according to the police chief.
Another bus that was on the ferry reached the river’s other side safely, said Minya Governor Fouad Saad Eddin. But three of its passengers who were standing outside the first bus at the time of the incident were injured, said Noureddin.
The two microbuses carried men, women and children of one extended family who were heading to visit their relatives, according to the governor.
The driver of the bus that fell off the ferry turned himself in to authorities fearing violent reprisal from surviving family members, said the police chief.
During the three-day Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Adha, Egyptians usually return to their hometowns to visit family and cemeteries to pay their respects.
Ferry, railway and road accidents are common in Egypt mainly because of poor maintenance and the lack of regulations.
