CAIRO, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- At least 11 persons were killed and 32 others wounded Friday when several cars collided on the desert road south of Cairo, the Egyptian Health Ministry said.

The accident happened in Minya province, 220 km from Cairo.

Some 15 ambulance cars rushed to the scene and transferred the wounded to Public Minya Hospital, Khaled Megahed, spokesperson of the Health Ministry told Xinhua.

The death toll might increase because some of the wounded are in serious conditions, Megahed added.

Egypt suffers a high rate of traffic accidents due to lack of highway monitoring systems, poor road maintenance and negligence of traffic rules.

In 2016, some 14,000 traffic accidents in Egypt killed over 5,300 people and injured more than 18,600 others, according to a report from the country's Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics.