At least 35 people died and 53 others were injured Saturday in a pileup on the road between Cairo and Alexandria in Egypt’s coastal north, state media reported.
The accident left “35 people dead, at least 18 of whom were burned,” said the daily Al-Ahram, which published a list of names of “at least 53 injured.”
Traffic accidents are common in Egypt where roads are often poorly maintained and traffic laws are poorly respected.
Images posted online on social networks notably show a truck turned over across the expressway, the asphalt of which is partly burned. Further away, at least one bus and a minibus appear largely charred, as do many cars, some still on fire.
All around, onlookers and lines of cars wait, amid screams and crowds in a thick cloud of black smoke.
Officially, 7,000 people were killed in traffic accidents in 2021 in the Arab world’s most populous country, which has a population of 105 million.