Nine child workers die in Egypt as bus plunges into the Nile

At least 10 female farm workers, nine of them children, died in Egypt on Tuesday when a minibus plunged off a river ferry and into the Nile northwest of Cairo, the health ministry said.

"The toll is at 10 and could rise," ministry spokesman Hossam Abdelghaffar told AFP.

Reporting the accident, the state's flagship Al-Ahram newspaper said the driver, who had released the handbrake, was arrested while trying to flee.

He had "a verbal argument" with one of the passengers before getting out of the bus, the paper said.