At least 10 farmers were killed on Thursday in a head-on collision between a pickup and a tractor on a highway in Egypt's northern province of Beheira, a medical source said.

The pickup truck was hit by a tractor coming from the opposite direction, leaving all 10 farmers aboard the truck killed and the two drivers wounded, a source from the ambulance authority of Beheira told Xinhua.

Initial investigations found signs of drug use in the urine test of the tractor driver, the source said on condition of anonymity.

In Egypt, traffic accidents are common and claim thousands of lives every year. Most of the accidents are caused by speeding, poor maintenance of roads, and lax enforcement of traffic laws.

Over the past few years, Egypt has been upgrading its road network by building new roads and bridges and repairing old ones to reduce traffic accidents.