Cairo: A bus flipped over on a desert road in Upper Egypt early Thursday, leaving 28 people injured, security sources said.

The accident occurred on a desert road linking the southern provinces of Sohag and Qena, they said.

The injured were transferred to local hospitals while security authorities were trying to clear the debris resulting from the crash in order to bring traffic on the road back to normal, they said.

The bus driver is believed to have lost control of the vehicle due to high speed.

Egyptian authorities have recently toughened traffic penalties in an attempt to curb road accidents, which are among the world’s highest. The crashes are often attributed to reckless driving, ill-kept cars and poor routes, according to traffic experts.

Over the past five years, Egypt has built a large network of roads across the country of nearly 100 million people.