Ten people were killed and another two injured while they were tunneling inside a Qena farmer’s house during a search for artifacts.
Investigations revealed that a group of residents from the village of Manasra in Qena had shoveled to a depth of 100 meters inside the house.
According to the report, they were looking for ancient monuments when the walls caved in. Civil protection forces were called to the scene, arriving to pull the dead bodies from under the large amounts of earth.
Rumors of discoveries in Upper Egypt lead many residents to believe that there are monuments just under the topsoil, which anyone can excavate.
The region is also near the ancient city of Luxor, where more than half of Egypt’s ancient monuments are found.
Nagaa Hammadi prosecutor Mostafa al-Azraq demanded expediting police investigations into the accident and reports on the causes of death.
Meanwhile, hundreds of the victims’ relatives from the village and neighboring ones flocked to Nagaa Hammadi Hospital.
Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm
