The Mexican government, which had previously confirmed the deaths of two citizens, said six more who had been unaccounted for were confirmed dead on Tuesday.
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Egyptian media earlier reported that prosecutors had ordered DNA tests to be carried out on the bodies of victims found at the site of the attack, in which four Egyptians were also killed.
Acting Egyptian Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb arrives to visit injured Mexican tourists at the Dar Al Fouad Hospital in Cairo on Monday.
Egyptian forces opened fire on four vehicles in which the tourists were traveling, mistaken them for terrorists.
Ten people, among them six Mexicans were also injured in the attack.
“We face a bad loss of human lives and an unjustified attack that obligates us to make the protection of our citizens the priority”, she told reporters at Mexico City’s airport, adding that she was travelling with seven relatives of some of the victims as well as Mexican doctors to care for the wounded.
She is expected in Cairo at 2200 GMT, a Mexican official told AFP.
Egyptian officials said the group did not have permission to be in the area, but have not offered a full account of Sunday’s incident, in which another 10 people were wounded.
Twelve people were mistakenly killed by Egyptian security forces in an anti-terror operation on Sunday.
The country’s authorities have apologised, but insist the group were in a restricted area.
Bahariya’s hotels, clustered in a region more than 300 kilometres (180 miles) southwest of Cairo, are a big draw for tourists eager to explore its white desert dunes and black quartz hills.
The place they chose for their picnic was a regular tourist stop, Nahla said.
“I don’t blame anyone but I ask who is responsible for coordination, and why was it absent?”
Egyptian military and police were chasing “terrorist elements” on Saturday when they came across the tourist group. Families of the two other identified people were notified by the ministry.
The extra dimension to the tragedy would be if it is allowed to inflict further harm on Egypt’s struggling tourist industry, a major source of much-needed foreign currency.
The Egyptian government has said guides took the tourists into a restricted zone, an accusation vehemently denied by a union representing the guides. The vast Western Desert, popular with tourists for its oases and rock formations, is also a militant hideout.
The Islamist insurgency gained momentum after the country’s military, led by Abdel-Fatteh El-Sisi who now serves as Egypt’s president, overthrew his predecessor, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, in mid-2013 after mass protests broke out against his rule.
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Hundreds of soldiers and police have been killed by militants who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and have started to attack Western targets in the country.
