Cairo, May 31 (IANS): At least three people were killed and 27 others wounded as a minibus collided with a truck on a desert road in Egypt's Giza province near the capital Cairo.

Several ambulances were sent to rescue the survivors and take them to nearby hospitals after the accident took place between Tahma and Dahshur villages on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the state-run Al-Ahram news website.

The Egyptian Public Prosecution is probing into the cause of the accident, according to the Al-Ahram news report.

Road accidents claim thousands of lives in the most populous Arab country every year, with most of them caused by human errors including speeding and negligence of traffic rules and laws.

The annual deaths caused by car accidents in Egypt rose from 6,164 in 2020 to 7,101 in 2021, marking a 15.2-per cent increase, said a report released by the country's statistics agency CAPMAS in mid-2022.

To ease traffic and reduce the number of accidents, Egypt has been upgrading its road network over the past few years. The country built new roads and bridges and repaired old ones.