|
Egypt blast at bazaar kills 2, injures 20
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-08 08:21
An explosion apparently set off by a bomber on a motorcycle hit a tour group
shopping in a historic bazaar Thursday, killing at least two people and wounding
20 — the first attack targeting foreign tourists in the Egyptian capital in more
than seven years.
The dead included a French woman, and 11 Egyptians and nine foreigners were
wounded, said Brig. Gen. Nabil al-Azabi, head of security in Cairo. He said the
second person killed may have been the bomber.
Many of the wounded had severe wounds from nails packed in the bomb, doctors
said. Among the wounded foreigners were three Americans, four French, and a
Turk, the Interior Ministry said. The ministry said there was also a wounded
Italian, but Italian diplomats leaving the hospital later said there were no
Italians among the casualties and had no explanation for the discrepancy.
An Egyptian woman walks past Egyptian police
officers who are securing the area near al-Hussein hospital in Cairo
Thursday April 7, 2005 after people injured in a bomb explosion were taken
there for treatment. The explosion, apparently set off by a man on a
motorcycle hit an outdoor bazaar popular with tourists in Cairo's Old
City, killing two people including a French woman, and wounding 20 others,
officials said. [AP] | The U.S. Embassy in Cairo
was putting out a warden message warning Americans to stay away from Khan
al-Khalili, the sprawling bazaar area, and to use prudence elsewhere in the
city, said embassy spokesman James L. Bullock. He would not confirm American
casualties in the blast.
Egypt has seen a long period of calm since it suppressed Islamic militants
who in the 1990s carried out bombings and shootings against tourists in their
campaign to bring down the government. The last significant attack on tourists
in Cairo was in 1997.
At least two witnesses said a man on a motorcycle appeared to have set off a
bomb near a tour group in the al-Moski bazaar, a maze of narrow alleys with
shops selling jewelry, souvenirs and clothes connected to the biggest tourist
souk, Khan al-Khalili.
Ambulances and rescue teams work at the site
of an explosion in Cairo April 7, 2005. A probable suicide bomb attack on
Thursday in a Cairo bazaar popular with tourists killed a French woman and
the bomber, Egypt's cabinet spokesman said.
[Reuters] | Al-Azabi said initial investigations suggested the explosive was a homemade
nail-packed bomb that went off prematurely. He said the second person killed,
whose body was severely mutilated, may have been the man carrying the bomb.
Hours later, the site was littered with glass, metal fragments and body
parts, as forensic experts and investigators searched for evidence. Officials
warned the number of dead could rise; four of the wounded were in critical
condition.
The witnesses were not clear whether the man on the motorcycle was a suicide
bomber or threw an explosive.
Police said two people were taken in for questioning and police were
investigating a motorcycle found nearby with nails scattered around it. Rabab
Rifaat, an Egyptian woman who was shopping in a store several yards from the
blast, said she heard "a boom, a horrible sound, very loud. Everyone started
running."
She said she then saw a decapitated head flying through the air.
A large, organized tour group was in the market when the explosion went off,
Rifaat said. Six or seven bodies lay on the ground afterward, some of them
foreign-looking, and an Egyptian man ran with burns on his back and his clothes
torn, Rifaat said. It was unclear if the bodies were dead or wounded.
A French Embassy spokeswoman Bernadette Abou Bechara that a French woman, a
tourist, was killed.
Hundreds of riot police sealed off the area, although tourists remained in
Khan al-Khalili, several hundred yards outside the police cordon. Three
officials from the U.S. Embassy arrived about three hours after the explosion
and tried to make their way through the police cordon.
A heavy police presence also surrounded al-Husseini University Hospital,
where many of the wounded were taken. An elderly Egyptian woman sobbed as she
tried to push into the hospital to see a 15-year-old granddaughter she believed
had been wounded.
The Khan is the most famous of a number of closely packed bazaars near
al-Azhar, one of the most prestigious Islamic institutions in the Sunni Muslim
world, in Cairo's old city.
Tourism is Egypt's highest earner of foreign exchange — and was targeted by
Islamic extremists in the 1990s.
In September 1997, two gunmen fired on a tour bus outside the Egyptian Museum
in central Cairo, killing 10 people — mostly German tourists. Two months later,
militants killed 58 tourists and four Egyptians in an attack at a pharaonic
temple in Luxor, southern Egypt.
Last October, explosions hit several hotels in the Sinai Peninsula, including
one in the resort of Taba, killing 34 people. Egyptian authorities say that
attack was linked to Israeli-Palestinian violence.
| |
 |
|
|
|
|
Today's
Top News |
|
|
|
Top World
News |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
