Medical workers transfer the body of a victim of the balloon explosion as they arrive in Cairo, Egypt, Feb. 26, 2013. The death toll of Egypt's Luxor balloon accident rose to 19 Tuesday afternoon after a seriously-wounded English tourist died at Luxor International Hospital, including nine from China's Hong Kong, Mohamed Sultan, head of Egypt's Ambulance Authority, confirmed to Xinhua. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)
![Officials from the Kuoni Travel Group, organizers of the Luxor trip for the Hong Kong tourists, attend a news conference in Hong Kong on Tuesday. [Photo by Kin Cheung / Associated Press]](U470P886T1D51491F14DT20130227090829.jpg "Officials from the Kuoni Travel Group, organizers of the Luxor trip for the Hong Kong tourists, attend a news conference in Hong Kong on Tuesday. [Photo by Kin Cheung / Associated Press]")
Officials from the Kuoni Travel Group, organizers of the Luxor trip for the Hong Kong tourists, attend a news conference in Hong Kong on Tuesday. [Photo by Kin Cheung / Associated Press]
The Foreign Ministry confirmed Tuesday that nine tourists from Hong Kong have died in Egypt.
"The Chinese government has taken the deaths of the nine Hong Kong tourists seriously and sent a work panel to Egypt to deal with the aftermath," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a statement Tuesday night.
A hot air balloon with 20 tourists exploded and plunged to the earth in the city of Luxor, killing 19 people including the nine from Hong Kong, Hua said.
The Chinese Embassy in Egypt and the Foreign Ministry's Office of the Commissioner in Hong Kong have launched an emergency response, kept close contact with related departments of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government and helped government staff, tourism company representatives and the relatives of the deceased travel to Egypt, Hua said, adding that the Chinese Embassy in Egypt has already sent staff to the scene.
The work panel, the Chinese Embassy in Egypt and the Office of the Commissioner in Hong Kong will do their best to help the victims' relatives deal with the tragedy, Hua said.
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