Cairo - An attacker armed with a knife
killed two female German tourists and wounded four other
foreigners, including two Czechs, at an Egyptian Red Sea beach
resort on Friday, local authorities and sources said.
The attacker swam from a nearby public beach to access the
Zahabia Hotel, where he killed the two Germans and wounded two
others before attacking two more people at the adjacent Sunny
Days El Palacio resort in Hurghada, security sources said.
Security and medical sources had earlier reported the two
women killed were Ukrainians, but Major Gen. Mohamed El-Hamzawi,
security manager of Red Sea province, told Reuters the two
victims had been identified as Germans.
The interior ministry said the attacker was arrested after
the attack, but the motive was still under investigation.
Egypt is fighting an Islamist insurgency in the Sinai
Peninsula where they mainly target security forces, but
militants have previously attacked tourism targets and have also
hit Coptic Christians and churches.
The nationality of the two other victims, who were also
taken to hospital, was not immediately known. A spokesman for
the Czech foreign ministry confirmed one Czech female national
was wounded in the attack.
The Zahabia and El Palacio hotels in Hurghada, one of
Egypt's most popular holiday resorts, some 400 km (250 miles)
south of the capital Cairo, both have their own private beach.
In January 2016, two assailants armed with a gun, a knife
and a suicide belt landed on the beach of a hotel in Hurghada,
wounding two foreign tourists.
Friday's attack came on a day that five policemen were
killed by gunmen on a motorbike who ambushed their car just
south of Cairo.