Hours after the crash in the Sinai peninsula, the Foreign Office (FO) was still trying to determine just how many Britons had been aboard the bus.

Survivors spoke of the "hell" as the bus, en route from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to Cairo, overturned and how they'd had to jump to safety.

Many of the injured suffered severe burns after the fire turned the bus into a burnt-out shell.

Local officials said four Britons were injured and the Foreign Office said that it had been told the same figure by the Egyptian tourism ministry.

An FO spokesman said: "We are still trying to find out the exact number. Our honorary consul in Sharm el-Sheikh is touring the hospitals to which the injured have been taken."

Diana Argentieri, a 27-year-old Italian factory worker holidaying in Egypt with friends, said the bus rolled over three or four times. Speaking from hospital, she went on: "It all seems like a nightmare, but unfortunately it's real. The bus was going very fast and the road was in (a) bad condition. We were immediately scared by the speed."

She said the bus rolled off the road, down an incline and onto a rocky spur. As she made for an exit "there was a person on the floor, lying still, and other people bleeding".

The driver, Ali Haridi, said he lost control of the bus on a sharp curve in the highway at Abu Zenima, an area about 40 miles south east of the Suez Canal.

Local officials said the bus was carrying Canadians, Britons, Italians and other tourists from Eastern Europe. One Romanian and one Russian were believed to be among the dead.