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A hot air balloon crashed near the Egyptian town of Luxor at dawn on Tuesday after a mid-air gas explosion, killing 19 Asian and European tourists, a local industry official and the state news agency said.
A spokesman for balloon operators in the area told Reuters that one tourist and the pilot had survived the crash, which followed the blast at 1,000 feet (300 metres).
The dead were from Britain, France, Japan and Hong Kong, the state news agency MENA reported, citing a security source.
The accident happened over the west bank of the Nile River.
