CAIRO, Mar 29 (Aswat Masriya) - Seventeen people were killed and seven others were injured in a three-car collision on the Sohag-Red Sea road late Sunday.

The collision, which involved a truck, a microbus and a taxi, sent the microbus running downhill, killing 17 people and injuring seven others, a Health Ministry official told Aswat Masriya.

Road accidents are a common occurrence in Egypt, being among the prime causes of death in the Arab world's most populous country.

Only last week, a private company bus carrying workers fell off the ring road and into a canal branching from the Nile river, killing 12 of them.