Gunmen attempt to storm hotel in Egypt

Egyptian security forces are reported to have confronted two men wielding knives or guns trying to escape a hotel in the Egyptian coastal city of Hurghada, after they injured a number of tourists.

A Norwegian tourist staying at the Bella Vista said he heard at least 24 shots as the attackers moved around the hotel.

No one was hurt in the attack, which was also claimed by ISIL in a statement published on social media. Here again this differed from the initial reporting, which said that the attackers were “waving black ISIS flags”.

With that information, it’s to no surprise that the Egyptian affiliate of the Islamic State that is situated in a nearby Sinai peninsula, directly across the Red Sea from where Friday’s hotel attack took place, are now focusing on threatening Egyptian resort towns like Hurghada. “I got up a few times and when I saw it was clear, I ran out on the street and tried to get hold of an ambulance”.

Egypt was able to deal swiftly and effectively with this latest attack in Hurghada but the authorities will want to establish where it was launched from and what further precautions they now need to take.

Hotel employee Yasser Fakhreddin said the group “threw fireworks and fired birdshot at the glass facade of the hotel as well as the windows of an empty bus waiting to pick up the Arab Israeli tourists”.

Security sources said the attackers had arrived by sea and also carried a gun and a suicide belt.

It is the second attack on a hotel frequented by foreign tourists in Egypt in as many days, an ominous development for the country’s already battered tourism industry.

The father of the Swedish victim in Friday’s attack said they were having dinner at the restaurant when the assailants came in.

One of the tourists is believed to be from Denmark and the other from Germany, according to reports.

Olovsson said: ‘I can inform you that I’m in hospital, four stab wounds, but the situation is stable’.

Isis has claimed responsibility of the attack claiming it targeted “jewish tourist”.

Tourism remains a major source of hard currency in Egypt, where foreign reserves have dropped from $36 billion before the 2011 uprising to $18 billion at the end of August.

The Islamic State group said it had downed the plane by smuggling a bomb on board in the Sharm el-Sheikh airport.