CAIRO (AFP) - A bus packed with teenagers on their way to school collided with an oil tanker truck in northern Egypt on Wednesday leaving 16 people dead, police and medics said.

The crash, near the Nile Delta city of Damanhur, 160km north of Cairo, injured another 18 people, some of them seriously.

The bus was carrying secondary school pupils, but medics were not immediately able to say how many of the dead were children because the bodies were so badly burned after both vehicles burst into flames.

Provincial governor Mustafa Hadhud told Egyptian television that the bus had skidded after torrential rains struck the region.

Traffic accidents are common in Egypt, with more than 15,00 recorded last year alone.

Roads are often poorly maintained and traffic regulations little enforced.

Road accidents are responsible for an average of nearly 12,000 deaths a year in the country, according to the World Health Organisation.