Cairo - Eight people were killed and 26 injured Thursday when a bus carrying tourists in Egypt's Sinai peninsula overturned and caught fire while on its way to Cairo, police said.

The bus was carrying tourists from Canada, Britain, Ukraine and Russia from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to Cairo when it overturned near Hamam Pharaon, about 40 kilometres from the port of Abu Zenima, according to the state new agency MENA.

Critically wounded passengers were taken to the Sharm el-Sheikh hospital while the ones with light injuries were taken to a hospital in the nearby town of Tor. (dpa)