Egypt road crash kills 15, mostly soldiers

CAIRO, Oct 15 (Reuters) Fourteen Egyptian military conscripts and a civilian driver were killed today when a minibus and a water tanker collided on a road in the Sinai peninsula, security sources said.

The sources said the accident happened when the vehicles crashed head-on on an intercity road in south Sinai as the soldiers were returning in the minibus to Sharm el-Sheikh at the end of the Eid el-Fitr Muslim holiday.

The accident came a day after at least six people, mostly children, died in a Nile river ferry accident in Minya province, south of Cairo.

Reckless driving, lax traffic rules and poor road conditions cause many road crashes in Egypt. A series of road and rail accidents in the past few years triggered a public outcry over the government's handling of road and transport safety.

REUTERS CS BST0242