Six passengers were killed and five others rescued after a microbus overturned in a canal in Upper Egypt's governorate of Sohag, some 400 km south of the capital Cairo, official news agency MENA reported Friday.

The rescue teams hurried to the scene and managed to save five people from the canal and pick up the dead bodies, except for one of a child still being looked for underwater.

Investigators said the eleven passengers, all Christians, were on their way back from a church at Umm Duma village to Tama city in Sohag, when the microbus driver, who ran away after the accident, lost control of the wheel and overturned the vehicle into the canal.

Earlier Friday, another six people were killed and eight injured in a car crash on Ismailia-Zagazig desert highway in Egypt, north of Cairo.

Road accidents in Egypt killed around 10,000 people every year, according to Transportation Minister Hatem Abdel-Latif, who said earlier that the government was working to improve road services across the country.

Lack of highway security monitoring systems, improper road maintenance and irresponsible behavior of citizens are behind the high rate of road accidents in Egypt.