Egyptian bus swept away

Floodwaters caused by torrential rains swept a bus packed with 77 schoolgirls and their teachers off a highway in the south of Egypt, killing 15 people, most of them students.

Poorly equipped rescue workers and local residents struggled to save those on the bus, which overturned late on Thursday in a deep trench created by strong flood currents along the highway leading to Minya, 200km south of Cairo.

The last two survivors were pulled out of the water in the early hours of yesterday, police said. The dead included an ambulance driver who had rescued 20 of those on board the bus before the floods swept him away.