Ten Sohag University students died Sunday from a accident on Kawamel road in the Upper Egypt governorate of Sohag.

Five students were also severerly injured as a van they were passengers in fell into a dried sluiceway when the driver attempted to avoid a truck coming from the opposite direction.

Egypt, that has the Middle East's greatest number of road accidents, loses around 12.000 lives to car accidents each year, according to a report by the World Health Organisation (WHO). 

The WHO ranks Egypt the world's tenth worst country in road accidents, after India, China and the United States. 

A 2012 report by the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) estimated that traffic accidents cost the Egyptian economy LE17 billion yearly. 

The van in Sunday's accident was transporting 14 students from Sohag University.

Civic protection forces were able to recover nine dead bodies from the sluiceway after the accident. A tenth student died on the way to the hospital.

The victims were taken to the university hospital where they will remain as the prosecution investigates the accident.