Sultan unhurt in car crash

Sultan unhurt in car crash

MUSCAT (Reuter): The ruler of Oman, Sultan Qaboos Bin Said, left hospital in good health yesterday after a car accident that killed a deputy prime minister of the Gulf state, the Oman news agency said.

It said well-wishers held an all-night vigil and slaughtered sheep at the gates of the hospital where the sultan had tests after Monday night's accident, which occurred when his car was hit by another vehicle after an Omani stopped him, apparently to talk.

A cabinet secretariat statement said the Deputy Prime Minister for Financial and Economic Affairs, Qais Bin Abdulmonim al- Zawawi, died. Zawawi had held his post for more than a decade and was an architect of Oman's financial policies.

A royal court statement said the sultan was driving his private car with some ministers on a tour of Salala, where he has a summer resort, about 1,000 kilometers south of Muscat.