Update on the hot air balloon crash near the city of Luxor in Egypt

Security official confirmed that Britons are among 19 tourists killed in a hot air balloon crash near the city of Luxor in Egypt.

A spokesman for companies that operate balloon flights in the area told Reuters one tourist and the balloon pilot had survived the accident, which happened after a gas explosion at 1,000 feet (300 meters). 

Ahmed Aboud added that the tourists were from a variety of countries but did not immediately have information on their nationalities.

An employee at the company operating the balloon told AFP the tourists were from Korea, Japan and Britain, as well as one Egyptian.

“This is terrible, just terrible,” the employee told AFP by telephone in floods of tears, declining to give her name.

“We don't yet know what happened exactly or what went wrong,” she said.

Earlier a security official said that 19 people had died but said they were from Hong Kong, Japan, France and Britain.

The balloon which was carrying 21 people was flying at 300 meters over Qurna, in Luxor's West Bank, when it caught fire before exploding, the official said.

The two survivors, including the balloon's pilot, have been taken to hospital, he said.

Hot air ballooning at dawn is popular with tourists who goto Luxor to visit its pharaonic temples and the tombs of theValley of the Kings, including in Tutankhamen's. 
Egypt's tourism industry has suffered a sharp downturn invisitor numbers since the 2011 uprising that toppled PresidentHosni Mubarak, with two years of political instability scaringoff foreign tourists.

Updated report released by health officials confirms that among the victims,  9 are Chinese citizens from Hong Kong, 4 Japanese, 2 British, 2 French and 2 remain unidentified.