The country’s tourism industry is in a parlous state after a series of recent attacks, including the downing of a Russian commercial jet, with many tourists cancelling travel to the region.
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A hospital official identified them as Renata and Wilhelm Weisslein, both 72, and Sammie Olovsson, 27, and said they were all in a stable condition.
Police said they were Arab Israelis, and that the assailants had targeted policemen guarding the hotel and not them.
The armed men wounded two Austrian tourists and a Swede. One gunman was arrested at the scene and security forces surrounded the other attacker in another part of Cairo said security sources earlier.
The attack on the tourists came on a day when Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Christians were celebrating Christmas in the predominantly Muslim country. In a statement posted on Twitter, the Islamic State group said its militants opened had fire on three vehicles in the colonel’s convoy.
Egypt has been battling Islamist militants for sometime now, dealing with the spillover of terror that ensued after the ousting of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi back in 2013.
No one has so far claimed responsibility for the attack in Hurghada.
“Everything went really fast”, he told Sweden’s Expressen newspaper. “When I got up later on they were not here”, he said, speaking in English. “I myself had the gun pointed at me three times, and Sammie was stabbed with the knife”.
“I told him to lie still”.
The Bella Vista hotel said on its Facebook page that “two drugged young men attacked one of our hotel restaurants [Out of the hotel territory] with fake gun [plastic] and small knives”. Both attackers apparently arrived via sea.
Years of violence in Egypt have been a heavy blow to Egypt’s tourism sector.
Survivors said the attack was staged by a plane and a helicopter.
“Some have chose to do so”.
The Associated Press contributed to this article. “As they passed by the hotel, the individuals threw home-made fireworks in the direction of the security officers stationed at the hotel to disperse them”. “Everybody just ran. We hear shoot. Everybody was crying. It was very bad”, she said.
“We saw a dead man on the floor”.
It now has about 3,100 German guests in Egypt, all of whom it said were fine.
The attacker who was killed was apparently wearing a suicide vest.
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The interior ministry said in a statement that the assailants tried to enter the hotel room from its restaurant. However, other media reports have stated that one “ISIS flag” was recovered at the scene.
