The commander of Egypt's northern military region, Major General Mohamed Lotfy Youssef, died in a road accident on Wednesday evening, the health ministry has announced.

According to a short statement from the ministry, Youssef died when the car he was travelling in flipped over on the Cairo-Alexandria highway.

The incident, which occured as Youssef travelled to Alexandria, was the result of a burst tyre, the statement said.

Two other men, an army officer and a conscript driver, were injured in the incident. They were transferred to Wadi El-Natroun Surgical Hospital for treatment.