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Two Vietnamese Tourists Killed in Bombing in Egypt Bomb Strikes Bus Full of Vietnamese Tourists, Killing 3
(about 2 hours later)
Two Vietnamese tourists were killed and 12 other people were injured when a bomb blast hit their bus on Friday less than three miles from Egypt’s world famous Giza pyramids, authorities said. CAIRO — A bus full of Vietnamese tourists was rocked by a roadside bomb near the famed Giza Pyramids on Friday, killing at least three people and wounding 11 more, officials said.
Ten of the injured were Vietnamese tourists and two were Egyptians, the driver and a tour guide, an Interior Ministry statement said. The primitive explosive had been stashed near a wall in the Mariotiyah area near the pyramids, the Interior Ministry said. The dead included two Vietnamese tourists and an Egyptian tour guide.
The bus was hit by an explosion from an improvised device hidden near a wall, the ministry said. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly told reporters that the bus had left its designated route without notifying authorities. Images from the scene of the attack showed a small white bus covered in soot with its windows shattered and blown out.
About two hours later, the bus could be seen behind a police cordon with one of its sides badly damaged and the windows blown out, a Reuters reporter said. No militant group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but Egypt has been fighting an Islamic State affiliate in Sinai since 2013.
Dozens of police officers and firefighters were at the scene, on a narrow sidestreet close to the ring road. The Sinai insurgency has mostly targeted security forces in the peninsula and a Christian minority in the mainland in separate attacks. But the militant group has also claimed responsibility for downing a Russian airliner in Sinai in October 2015, killing all 224 on board.
The police are investigating, the ministry said. Last month, gunmen opened fire on two buses some 85 miles south of Cairo, killing seven Coptic pilgrims. And in November 2017, the militants targeted another minority, Muslim Sufis, during prayers and killed at least 311 people, the deadliest sectarian bloodshed in Egypt’s modern history.
The security forces have tightened security around Christian places of worship in anticipation of attacks against the Egyptian Coptic minority during the New Year’s Eve celebrations and next month’s Christmas celebrations of the Coptic Orthodox Church.
The attack comes just as tourism in Egypt has shown some signs of recovery after the years of political turmoil and violence that followed the 2011 uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak, who had ruled the country for nearly 30 years.