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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/19/egypt-roadside-bomb-injures-tourists-near-giza-pyramids-officials-say
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| Roadside bomb injures tourists on bus near Giza pyramids | |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| A roadside bomb injured at least 17 people on Sunday when it detonated next to a bus of tourists, close to the Giza pyramids in Cairo. | |
| Images of the aftermath of the attack broadcast on Egyptian state television showed shocked tourists, one with a bloodstained T-shirt, disembarking a bus with its windows blown out and the windscreen cracked. The explosion also ripped a hole through a nearby wall, close to the construction site of the Grand Egyptian museum, a site hoping to draw tourists when it opens next year. | |
| The attack wounded at least 10 Egyptians and 7 South African tourists according to initial estimates from a source at Egypt’s Ministry of Health. They added that most of the injuries were caused by shock and broken glass falling on to the group. | |
| Egypt’s state television stated that 25 tourists, mostly from South Africa, were aboard the bus when it was struck. Local newspaper Ahram said that an “unknown device” exploded close to the bus, and struck a nearby car carrying four Egyptian citizens. | |
| Dominant Travel, whose logo was visible on the side of the bus, said their company provided the bus to Cairo-based Meryland Tours for an excursion, but provided no further information when contacted by the Guardian. Meryland Tours also did not respond. | |
| The attack took place close to the site of a previous attack on tourists. Last December, an IED struck a bus carrying Vietnamese tourists near the Haram district, close to the Giza pyramids. Three of the group were killed, including their Egyptian guide, and ten were wounded. | |
| The Foreign and Commonwealth Office advises British tourists to seek advice before travelling to Cairo, but the area is marked as comparatively safer than outlying areas of the country where “all but essential travel,” is proscribed. Egypt’s Ministry of the Interior did not respond when contacted by the Guardian, but shared video of the state television broadcast on their YouTube page. | |
| Egypt’s tourism industry has slowly mounted a recovery following the alleged bombing of the Russian airline Metrojet flight 7K9268 in October 2015, which killed all 224 people on board, the vast majority Russian tourists. Britain banned direct flights to Sharm el Sheikh airport, where the flight departed, in response to security concerns after the attack. Flights on the route have not resumed. | |
| “Undoubtedly this attack will be of concern to governments who have been reviewing the security situation to advise their citizens on visiting Egypt,” said Timothy E Kaldas of the Washington DC-based think-tank the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. “The Egyptian government has been actively lobbying to get travel advisories for foreigners removed so that there will be more tourists feeling safe to come here.” | |
| Adham Youssef contributed reporting | |
| Egypt | Egypt |
| Middle East and North Africa | |
| Africa | |
| news | |
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