Israeli tourists shot at in Cairo

  • 08/01/2016
(File)
(File)

Gunmen have opened fire on Israeli tourists as they boarded a bus in Cairo, but there were no casualties, security sources say.

Egypt declared it would step up security at major tourist attractions last year after Islamist militants carried out several attacks, causing its struggling tourism industry to slump further.

Thursday's shooting (local time) took place at the Three Pyramids Hotel, on a road leading to the Giza pyramids southwest of the capital.

It is likely to raise questions over President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's repeated promises to stamp out militancy in Egypt.

Security sources said the tourists boarding the bus were Israeli Arabs.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement 15 people who had gathered on a side street near the hotel threw home-made fireworks in the direction of security forces stationed there.

"One of the loiterers fired a home-made pellet gun in the direction of the security in front of the hotel, causing some damage to the glass facade of the hotel as well as the window of a tourist bus. No injuries occurred," it said.

Security forces apprehended one person who was hiding behind the hotel, the ministry said.

One gunman was arrested at the scene and security forces surrounded the other attacker in another part of Cairo, said security sources earlier. There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack.

Tourism is a pillar of the Egyptian economy, which has been struggling to recover from political turmoil that began with the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

In one of the worst attacks, Islamic State's Egypt affiliate has said it planted a bomb on a Russian passenger plane that crashed in the Sinai on October 31, killing all 224 people on board.

Reuters