DPA-AFX International ProFeed, Germany
 Friday 11:30 PM GMT


Two Germans women killed in knife attack at Egyptian resort


By Walid Zaki and Ramadan Al-Fatash, dpa

CAIRO (dpa-AFX) - Two German women were killed Friday in a knife
attack on foreign tourists in the Egyptian Red Sea town of Hurghada, a
state agency confirmed. The attack at a resort in Hurghada also
injured four other foreigners, the State Information Service added
without revealing their nationalities. Private newspaper al-Shorouk,
citing a health official, said the four injured were two Armenians, a
Czech and a Ukrainian.

The four were in stable condition, Naglaa Shata, the health
undersecretary in Red Sea province, told the newspaper. A security
source earlier told dpa those killed in the attack were two female
Ukrainians. The German Foreign Ministry said earlier it could not rule
out the possibility that Germans were among the victims. 'We don't
have any certainty about that yet,' the ministry said in a statement.
'We condemn this cowardly and malicious act that seemed to have
targeted specifically tourists, who wanted to spend a recreational
time at the beach.' In an initial report, the Egyptian Interior
Ministry said six tourists of different nationalities were injured in
the attack. The ministry said all the victims were women. The attacker
was immediately arrested and was being questioned about his motive,
the ministry added without details The man, believed to be in his
mid-20s, had sneaked into the hotel by swimming from a nearby beach.
An image posted online purportedly showed the attacker being held by
hotel employees inside an iron cart. Egypt's tourism industry, a main
source of national income, has been in the doldrums since the 2011
uprising against long-time dictator Hosny Mubarak. The industry
suffered a serious blow in 2015 when a Russian passenger jet broke up
in mid-air shortly after taking off from the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh
in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people on board. Russia
said the crash was caused by a bomb, and banned flights to Russia from
Egyptian airports in response. The Islamic State extremist group,
which operates in Sinai, claimed to have downed the plane. Egypt has
seen a spate of deadly attacks since the army's 2013 overthrow of
Islamist president Mohammed Morsi following massive protests against
his rule. The attacks have mainly targeted security forces and Egypt's
minority Christians. Earlier Friday, five policemen were killed in an
attack near Cairo. Three unknown men on a motorcycle opened fire at a
security patrol vehicle killing the five, the Interior Ministry said.
The attack took place in the area of al-Badrashein, in Giza province,
around 40 kilometres south of Cairo. The assailants escaped. So far,
there has been no claim of responsibility for the attack. Similar
attacks were claimed by the self-styled militant Hasm group that
police say is affiliated with the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood from
which Morsi hails.