CAIRO, Jan 22: Six people were killed and another 42 hurt on Thursday in traffic accidents around Egypt, as it was swept by heavy rains and sandstorms that also forced traffic to be diverted from Cairo airport, reports said.

Among the dead was a married couple and their two children, who were killed in Ismailiya, on the Suez Canal, when their car collided with a bus in heavy rains, state news agency MENA reported.

The weather, with sandstorms in places reducing visibility to zero, led authorities to close down roads in the Suez region to prevent accidents. Earlier, four small airports were closed because of sandstorms, while planes were turned away from the main international airport in Cairo and forced to land at Hurghada, on the Red Sea, airport sources said.

Cairo-bound EgyptAir flights from Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates were affected. Airports were closed in the northern Mediterranean city of Alexandria as well as in the southern Nile river communities of Aswan, Asyut and Abu Simbel, the sources added. The volatile weather is expected to continue until Monday. -AFP