Nineteen people were killed, including tourists, as a hot air balloon exploded while flying over Egypt’s ancient temple city of Luxor on Tuesday.

Nineteen people were killed, including tourists, as a hot air balloon exploded while flying over Egypt's ancient temple city of Luxor on Tuesday.

A security official said told Agence France Presse: “"Nineteen people died.”

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

He added that the two survivors, including the balloon's pilot, have been taken to hospital.

An employee at the company operating the balloon said 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.