Hot air balloon crash in Turkey kills 2, injures 23
Hot air balloons mark the end of the Warstein International Montgolfiade, Europe’s largest hot air balloon festival, in Germany on September 8, 2012.
A hot air balloon sightseeing tour in central Turkey ended in tragedy Monday when two balloons collided, causing one of the balloons to crash to the ground.
Two tourists – reportedly two Brazilians or a Brazilian and a Spaniard – were killed and nearly two dozen others were injured in the accident in the Cappadocia region.
The Associated Press said an ascending balloon hit the wicker basket of another balloon, ripping a hole in the balloon’s fabric and sending it crashing to the ground.
It is the second fatal hot air balloon accident in the region since companies began offering rides more than a decade ago. In 2009 a British man was also killed in a balloon crash.
Foreign tourists flock to Cappadocia to see the region's cone-shaped rock formations, rock-carved underground cities and early Christian churches, the Agence France–Presse reported.
The accident comes three months after a hot air balloon caught fire and crashed in Luxor, Egypt, killing 19 people.
More from GlobalPost: Hot air balloons – are they worth the risk?
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