Cairo bombing kills French tourist, wounds 20 others

The Egyptian health ministry said on Sunday a bomb attack in a tourist area of Cairo had killed one French tourist and wounded 20 other people.

Earlier, a security source told Reuters that four people had been killed in the attack, including two tourists.

The ministry said in comments carried by the official state news agency MENA that the wounded included 13 French, three Saudis, and four Egyptians.

Citing witness reports, the sources said at least one device exploded after being thrown from a motorcycle in a historic district near the city center.

Witnesses said a second device was also thrown but did not appear to have exploded, the security sources said. A security official said the second bomb was discovered and safely detonated shortly after the attack.

The blast took place in the famed Khan el-Khalili market in medieval Cairo, frequented by tourists and locals alike. Blood could be seen, on the marble paving stones in front of the historic Hussein mosque.

The Khan el-Khalili was last attacked in April 2005, when a suicide bomber killed two French citizens and an American.

A police colonel at the scene said the small bomb went off outside a cafe near the mosque kicking up stone and marble fragments, which wounded the passersby.

The outdoor cafes and restaurants lining the square were packed with crowds, including a large group of Irish tourists at Mohammed Said's Al-Sinousi Cafe. Riot police cordoned off the area and sniffer dogs could be seen as worshippers were being evacuated.

It was not clear who was behind the attack or if the tourists had been deliberately targeted, although Islamic militants have hit the country's tourist industry in recent decades through bomb and shooting attacks.

Egypt fought a long war with Islamist militants in the 1990s, which culminated in a massacre of more than 50 tourists in Luxor in 1997. The rebels were largely defeated and there have been few attacks since in the Nile valley.

There were, however, a number of attacks in recent years against resorts in the Sinai Peninsula, including one in Sharm el-Sheik in 2005 that killed more than 60 people.

Masked gunmen kidnapped 19 hostages in September 2008, including 11 tourists on a safari in a remote desert area of Egypt near the Sudanese and Libyan border. It was the first kidnapping of its kind in Egypt in historic memory.