CAIRO, May 2 (RIA Novosti) - A total of six Russian nationals were among nine people who died on Thursday night after a bus carrying foreign tourists overturned and caught fire in Egypt's Sinai peninsula, a police source said Friday.

Earlier local officials confirmed that three citizens from Ukraine, Romania and Egypt had died. Some 28 others, including 16 Russians, four Egyptians, two Canadians, two Italians, two Romanians, a Briton and a Ukrainian, were injured in the accident.

The vehicle, carrying 37 tourists from the popular tourist resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to the Egyptian capital, Cairo, hit a sharp bend on a desert highway at Abu Zenima, about 40 miles (65 kms) southeast of the Suez Canal.

Most passengers were asleep when the accident occurred.

A special commission has been established to investigate the circumstances of the accident, which some media sources reported was due to a burst tire.

Such incidents are frequent on Egyptian roads due to a combination of speeding and the poor condition of the roads. Some 8,000 people die annually each year in the country in road accidents.

Egypt is a popular tourist destination among Russians with some 1.5 million people visiting the country from Russia last year.