Chinese team arrives in Egypt over balloon crash

CAIRO - A Chinese Foreign Ministry work panel arrived in Egypt on Wednesday to deal with the aftermath of a deadly hot air balloon crash, in the wake of nine Hong Kong tourists dying in the tragedy in the country.

Meanwhile, officers from the Hong Kong Immigration Department and the tourist company's staff members also flied to Egypt to help.

About 10 family members of the victims will later arrive in Cairo at 5:00 pm local time (GMT 1500), according to embassy official.

Chinese Ambassador to Egypt Song Aiguo, said the embassy will discuss issues regarding the tragedy with the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, including the reasons behind the crash, the identification of the dead bodies, the arrangement of the remains of the victims and the compensation for the dead.

Qiu Xuejun, the head of the five-member work panel, for his part, urged the Egyptian government to launch a thorough investigation into the incident, and pledged to support Cairo to comfort and compensate the family members of the victims.

Earlier, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said the work panel, which left Beijing on Tuesday evening, will work with the Chinese Embassy in Cairo in dealing with developments.

A hot air balloon carrying 20 tourists exploded and plunged to the ground in Egypt's Luxor city on Tuesday, killing 19 people including the nine from Hong Kong.