Eighteen passengers were killed and 24 others injured on Tuesday when their bus slammed into a truck in the southern Egyptian city of Qena, state media reported.

Egyptian official news agency MENA quoted a local official as saying that the bus's high speed was to blame for the accident.

The bus collided with the truck and plunged into el-Ramadi canal in a village in Qena, a Nile city 640 kilometers south of Cairo, MENA said.

It was the second major road accident on Tuesday.

A tour bus overturned on a highway in southern Egypt early Tuesday, killing 14 tourists from Hong Kong and injuring 30 other people, some seriously, Egyptian officials said.

The bus was on the outskirts of the Red Sea resort of Hurghada, heading toward the ancient historic city of Luxor to the southwest, when it rolled over while speeding around a bend in the highway, according to MENA.

Source: Xinhua