At least six people were killed and three others wounded on Thursday after a passenger microbus hit a big truck from behind on a highway in Egypt's northern province of Ismailia, Egypt's official news agency MENA reported, Trend reports citing Xinhua.
The wounded were taken to the nearby Suez Canal University Hospital for treatment after the accident took place near Al Manaif village, according to the report.
Five Palestinians were killed and three others injured in the accident, the Palestinian embassy in Cairo said, noting the victims were on their way back to the Gaza Strip.
The Egyptian driver died in the accident, Egyptian media reported, without elaborating. Photos of the collision show that the white passenger microbus's head was broken.
"The embassy will follow up on the health status of the wounded and their treatment in Egyptian hospitals until their full recovery and their safe return to the homeland," the Palestinian embassy in Cairo said in a press statement on Thursday.
It added that it will complete all the procedures for transferring the bodies of the five Palestinian victims to the Gaza Strip as soon as possible.
Traffic accidents claim thousands of lives in Egypt every year. Most of the accidents are caused by human errors such as speeding and negligence of traffic rules and laws, in addition to poor maintenance of roads.
Over the past few years, Egypt has been upgrading its road network by building new roads and bridges and repairing old ones to ease traffic and reduce the number of traffic accidents.