At least 19 people have been killed when a speeding car driving against traffic crashed into three others causing a huge explosion in Cairo, the Egyptian health ministry said Monday.
The car crash happened just before midnight Sunday outside the National Cancer Institute in central Cairo and also wounded 30 people, the ministry added.
Between “three and four (of the injured) are in critical condition in the intensive care unit,” Khaled Megahed, a spokesman for the health ministry, told an early Monday news conference.
A rescuer helps a man to board an ambulance during the night of August 5, 2019, at the scene of an accident that took place just before midnight on August 4, outside the National Cancer Institute in the Egyptian capital Cairo. – At least 19 people have been killed and more than 30 injured when a speeding car driving against traffic crashed into three others causing a huge explosion in the capital, the Egyptian health ministry said today. (Photo by Aly FAHIM / AFP) 
People gather near an ambulance during the night of August 5, 2019, at the scene of an accident that took place just before midnight on August 4, outside the National Cancer Institute in the Egyptian capital Cairo. – At least 19 people have been killed and more than 30 injured when a speeding car driving against traffic crashed into three others causing a huge explosion in the capital, the Egyptian health ministry said today. (Photo by Aly FAHIM / AFP) 
Onlookers gather during the night of August 5, 2019, at the scene of an accident that took place just before midnight on August 4, outside the National Cancer Institute in the Egyptian capital Cairo. – At least 19 people have been killed and more than 30 injured when a speeding car driving against traffic crashed into three others causing a huge explosion in the capital, the Egyptian health ministry said today. (Photo by Aly FAHIM / AFP) 
05 August 2019, Egypt, Cairo: A firefighter extinguishs a fire after an explosion in front of the National Cancer Institute. According to Health Ministry, at least 17 people died and 26 injured. Photo: Oliver Weiken/dpa 
05 August 2019, Egypt, Cairo: People extinguish a fire after an explosion in front of the National Cancer Institute. According to Health Ministry, at least 17 people died and 26 injured. Photo: Oliver Weiken/dpa 
05 August 2019, Egypt, Cairo: Firefighters extinguish a fire after an explosion in front of the National Cancer Institute. According to Health Ministry, at least 17 people died and 26 injured. Photo: Oliver Weiken/dpa 
Onlookers and Egyptian security forces gather around a charred car, following an accident just before midnight on August 4, 2019, outside the National Cancer Institute in central Cairo. – At least 19 people have been killed and more than 30 injured when a speeding car driving against traffic crashed into three others causing a huge explosion in the capital, the Egyptian health ministry said today. (Photo by Aly FAHIM / AFP)
He said they suffered from “several burns of varying degrees”.
Body parts were also retrieved from the scene, he added.
Social media users posted footage of cars ablaze at the scene and of patients being evacuated from the Cancer Institute.
Egypt’s prosecutor general has ordered an investigation to determine the causes of the crash.
Deadly road accidents owing to driver error and dilapidated infrastructure are common in Egypt with over 3,000 killed in more than 8,400 crashes in 2018, according to official figures published earlier this year.
