Tourists killed when roadside bomb explodes near Giza pyramids

Two Vietnamese tourists and a tour guide were killed, and 11 others wounded, when a roadside bomb exploded near their bus as it traveled near the Giza pyramids outside Cairo, according to reports.

The improvised explosive device detonated about 6:15 p.m. local time as the bus, carrying 14 people, passed though the Marioutiyah area in Egypt’s Haram district near the pyramids.

Ten Vietnamese tourists and the Egyptian driver were wounded when the device, hidden near a wall, exploded, officials said.

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, who visited the injured at Al-Haram hospital, said the bus had not followed the path it was supposed to take, where it would have been secured by police.

Prosecutors said they had launched an investigation “to arrest the perpetrators.” No militant group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Ahmed Samy, who drives a three-wheeled taxi, said he saw the mangled bus after the blast as people rushed to help the injured get out.

“One of the passengers was dead and was covered in blood,” he said, the UK’s Guardian reported.

Egypt has battled Islamic extremists for years in the Sinai Peninsula in an insurgency that has spilled over to the mainland at times, hitting minority Christians or tourists.

But Friday’s attack is the first to target foreign tourists in almost two years.

It occurred as Egypt’s vital tourism industry is showing signs of recovery after years because of the political turmoil and violence that followed a 2011 uprising that toppled former leader Hosni Mubarak.

The attack will likely prompt officials to tighten security around churches and related facilities before New Year’s Eve celebrations and next month’s Christmas celebrations of the Coptic Orthodox Church, the dominant denomination among Egypt’s roughly 10 million Christians.

In the past two years, militant attacks against Christians in Egypt — usually targeting churches or buses carrying pilgrims to remote desert monasteries — have killed more than 100 people.

In July 2017, two German tourists were fatally stabbed by a suspected jihadist at the Egyptian Red Sea beach resort of Hurghada.

In 2015, ISIS claimed responsibility for a blast that downed a Russian airliner and killed all 224 people aboard shortly after it took off from the Egyptian holiday resort of Sharm El Sheikh.

The pyramids are one of the world’s major tourist attractions, drawing almost 15 million visitors every year.