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At least five people were killed and 59 others injured Saturday when a bus overturned on a coastal highway in Egypt’s northwestern province of Matrouh, the official MENA news agency reported.

The motorcoach overturned on the Alexandria-Matrouh highway, and the victims were taken to three nearby hospitals, according to the report.

Mabrouk Salem, the Health Ministry’s undersecretary in Matrouh, said in a statement that 33 of the injured were discharged from hospitals after treatment, while the rest of them were still under medical supervision.

Road accidents claim thousands of lives in Egypt every year due to speeding, poor maintenance of roads, and lax enforcement of traffic laws.

Over the past few years, Egypt has upgraded its road network to ease traffic and reduce road accidents.

According to the official statistics agency CAPMAS, road accidents in the country claimed the lives of 5,861 individuals in 2023, marking a 24.5-percent decrease from the 7,762 fatalities recorded in 2022.