A hot air balloon has crashed near the ancient Egyptian city of Luxor, killing 19 foreign tourists.

The balloon was carrying 21 people at the time and was flying at a height of 1000 feet over Qurna, in Luxor’s West Bank.

An Egyptian security official says there was a fire and an explosion on-board the balloon, which fell to the ground and crashed into sugar cane fields.

The casualties are believed to include British, French, Japanese, Korean and other foreign nationals.

Two survivors from the crash, including the balloon’s pilot, have been taken to hospital.

Witness Christopher Michel was travelling in one of several balloons in the air above Luxor early on Tuesday morning.

He told  “I was in one of about eight balloons that were flying that morning.

“We were approaching landing … coming down in a remote field just outside of Luxor.

“We heard a loud explosion behind us, and I looked back and saw lots of smoke.

“It wasn’t immediately clear that it was a balloon. We were surrounded by the balloons that had been flying with us.

“Then we could see the reaction of the pilot on the balloon and he said that this hasn’t happened in a long time.”

Hot air ballooning is popular with tourists who go to Luxor to visit its ancient temples and the tombs of the Valley of the Kings.

But the activity is not without its dangers. In April 2009, 16 people were hurt – including two British women – when a balloon crashed during a tour of Luxor.

The balloon was believed to have hit a mobile phone transmission tower near the banks of the Nile.

Following the 2009 crash, early morning hot air balloon flights over the Valley of the Kings were suspended for six months while safety measures were tightened up.

During the break, all 42 pilots from the eight companies who operate flights had extra training.

A notice on the Foreign Office website warns tourists that: “There were three serious hot air balloon accidents in Luxor in 2009.

“You should consider the operator’s safety arrangements carefully.”

Egypt’s tourism industry has suffered a sharp downturn in visitor numbers since the 2011 uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, with two years of political instability scaring off foreign tourists.

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