Eighteen foreign tourists, including at least three Britons, have been killed in Egypt after a hot air balloon crashed near the ancient city of Luxor.
Officials said that there was a fire and an explosion causing the balloon to plunge several hundred feet from the sky and crash into sugar cane fields west of Luxor, about 320 miles south of Cairo, the Egyptiancapital.
An Egyptian security official said 18 tourists had died including nine people from three families from Hong Kong, four from Japan, three Britons and two French tourists.
The survivors, including the pilot, were rushed to hospital suffering up to 70 per cent burns to their bodies after leaping from the balloon just before it crashed. The pilot survived by jumping from the basket about 30 feet from the ground.
Doctors in Luxor are reportedly trying to save the life of a British tourist badly injured in the crash.
