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| Sunday, 24 July 2005 |
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Blasts kill 50 in Egyptian Red Sea resort SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Friday (Reuters) Fifty people died and 200 were wounded when car bombs ripped through a bazaar and tourist hotels in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Saturday in Egypt's worst attack in nearly a decade. Shaken European tourists spoke of mass panic and hysteria as people fled the carnage, with bodies strewn across the roads, people screaming and sirens wailing. The regional governor said two car bombs and possibly a suitcase bomb had rocked the resort that is popular with divers. One blast tore the front off the Ghazala Gardens Hotel in Naama Bay, the site of most of the resort's luxury hotels, where people were feared trapped in the rubble. A car broke into the hotel compound and exploded in front of the building, South Sinai Governor Mustafa Afifi said. Egyptian tourist hotels always have police guards at the gates. "I have never been so scared in the whole of my life," British tourist Samantha Hardcastle said of the bombs. "The explosion we felt was very violent and the hotel we are staying in shook," she told BBC television. "It was absolutely horrific." It was the worst attack on tourist targets in Egypt since militant Islamists trying to bring down the government killed 58 tourists at an ancient temple near Luxor in 1997. Britons, French, Spaniards, Dutch, Qataris, Kuwaitis and Egyptians were among the dead and wounded, police sources said. Thirteen Italians and 15 other foreigners were among the wounded, a Tourism Ministry spokeswoman said. She had no firm figures for the number of non-Egyptian fatalities. Egypt's tourism minister worried that the attacks would hit the $6.6 billion tourism industry, the country's biggest private sector employer, in the short term. The first explosion hit the old market in Sharm el-Sheikh town shortly after 1 a.m. (2200 GMT), filling the air with fire and smoke, residents said. "I saw a car flying up in the air, people running," restaurant owner Yehya Mohammed said by telephone. "I do not think I will ever forget this in my life. This is a horrible setback for tourism here." A rescue official said many wounded were Egyptian workers gathered at a cafe in the old market. Seventeen of the dead were burnt beyond recognition. Sharm residents said they heard two more explosions coming from Naama Bay in quick succession, blasts that could be felt 10 km (six miles) away. Witnesses said the first of these hit the hotel and the second a taxi rank. The blasts came at a time when many tourists were still out in bars and markets in the popular and hitherto safe resort. "Many of the injuries are very serious and they are in critical condition," said a doctor at Sharm el-Sheikh International Hospital. Charlie Ives, a London policeman on holiday after dealing with the aftermath of bombings in the British capital, said he and his wife tried to get away from the scene of the first Naama Bay bomb only to run into the second one four minutes later. "The whole area was quickly covered in debris. There was a huge ball of smoke that mushroomed up. It was mass hysteria," he told BBC World television. Tourist Fabio Basone said: "People were trying to run in any direction to get away but were not clear where to go." Security sources said at least one car that blew up had special plates indicating it had come over the Israeli border at Taba on the Sinai peninsula. TOURISM INDUSTRY "We condemn this act in the strongest possible terms. There can be no excuse for the targeting of innocent civilians," a U.S. State Department spokesman said in Washington. "What happened early this morning is rejected by all people. These criminal gangs will not be able to prevent people from travelling and moving," Egyptian Tourism Minister Ahmed el-Maghrabi told Egyptian television, but he said: "These incidents will have an effect in the short term (on tourism)." Foreigners have been targeted in Egypt in earlier attacks. Three tourists were killed and others wounded in two bombings in the Egyptian capital Cairo in April. In October, 34 people were killed by car and truck bombs at resorts popular with Israelis, mostly at the Taba Hilton on the Israeli border. Those attacks were further north, on the eastern coast of the Sinai Peninsula closer to Israel. Tourism is a major source of revenues and employment in Egypt, which needs to create about 650,000 jobs a year for its youthful population. Some analysts say Egypt attracted extra visitors this year after many avoided tsunami-hit Asia.. |
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