Blast hits tourist bus in Egypt’s Giza – ministry

A blast hit a tourist bus carrying 25 South Africans near the Giza pyramids on Sunday, injuring a number of people, according to the interior ministry.

Security sources said earlier that at least 14 people were injured in the explosion near the Ring Road in Giza.

“A device exploded and shattered the glass of a bus carrying 25 people from South Africa,” the ministry said on its official Facebook page.

Some people, including four Egyptians in a nearby car, were wounded by broken glass from the two vehicles, state TV said in a video shared by the ministry.

The wounded are receiving treatment, it added. No deaths have been reported.

The blast took place near the famed Giza pyramids.

No damage has been caused to the museum from the explosion, which took place 50 metres from its fence and more than 400 metres from the museum building, the antiquities ministry said in a statement.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The attack comes nearly five months after three Vietnamese tourists and their Egyptian tour guide were killed when a bomb hit their tourist bus as it was travelling on El-Maryoutiya Street in Giza’s Haram district.

Egypt has responded to terrorist attacks over the past few years with raids on terrorist hideouts nationwide, including a concentrated offensive in North Sinai to combat terrorism.

Egypt has been battling an Islamist militancy that spiked following the 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. The violence has mainly been focused in the border North Sinai region, but has occasionally extended to the mainland.

In February 2018, the army launched an extensive security operation to crush militants.

Source: Ahram Online