News / Egypt

Armed men open fire on tourists in Egyptian capital

Thursday, 07 January 2016 1:34 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 07 January 2016 4:25 PM ]

Police are seen at the scene where gunmen attacked a tourist bus in front of a hotel in Giza, Greater Cairo, Egypt January 7, 2016. (Reuters Photo)

Gunmen have reportedly opened fire on a group of tourists as they boarded a bus in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, near the city’s famous tourist site.

Egyptian security sources said two assailants shot the tourists on Thursday morning outside the Three Pyramids Hotel, which lies on a road leading to the ancient Giza pyramids in the southwest of Cairo.

Israeli Arabs were on board the coach, but there were no casualties, according to the sources.

One of the attackers was nabbed at the scene while the other was surrounded by security forces in another part of the Egyptian capital.

No individual or group has claimed responsibility for Thursday’s incident so far.

Egypt has witnessed a wave of deadly bombings and shootings over the past few years. The assaults have negatively affected tourism that is considered as a pillar of the Egyptian economy.

The picture, taken on November 1, 2015 and released on November 3, 2015 by Russia’s Emergency Ministry, shows the wreckage of an A321 Russian airliner in Wadi al-Zolomat, a mountainous area in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, where the plane crashed. ©AFP

One of the worst attacks occurred on October 31, 2015, when an Airbus A321, run by Russia’s Kogalymavia airline, crashed in the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all the 224 people – mostly Russians – on board.

An affiliate of the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group, which is based in Egypt’s troubled Sinai, claimed responsibility for the incident.

The militants have regularly carried out attacks across the North African state, but their targets have mostly been members of the security forces in the violence-plagued Sinai.

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