The bodies of the dead children were recovered at night amid dozens of people who gathered around the canal crying and screaming.

Authorities have deployed ambulances to the area of the Sahel Morkos canal in Itay Al-Barud city in eastern Beheira as well as civil protection and river rescue vehicles, which are still combing the area in search for other victims, an official statement said.

The Public Prosecution is investigating the incident.

The eight children, whose ages ranged from 12 to 15-years-old, died while returning from work in a factory five kilometres away from their home in Al-Sawalem Bahari village at around 2am.

An unknown number of the surviving children were injured, some seriously, and moved to nearby university hospitals for treatment.

Hundreds of people in Itay Al-Barud have gathered to bid farewell to the deceased before their burial.

The accident has caused sorrow and uproar among people of the governorate and on social media with users calling the deceased children “the breadwinning victims.”

“They tried to run from poverty and they crashed into death,” one user said on Twitter.

While the state has upgraded and paved thousands of kilometres worth of roads nationwide, many roads, especially in the countryside, are still unpaved.