At least four people have been killed and another 10 injured after a roadside bomb exploded near a bus carrying Vietnamese tourists close to the pyramids in Giza. An Egyptian security source told the Guardian the bus had 16 people onboard and an IED exploded as it approached. Reuters reported that the device was hidden near a wall on Marioutiya Street on the Cairo outskirts. The tourists were heading to a show at the pyramids, which they had visited earlier in the day, said Lan Le, 41, who was onboard the bus but unhurt.
Ahmed Samy, a tuk-tuk driver, said he saw the bus after the blast and locals and drivers were helping the injured to get out. He told reporters that the bus had not followed the path it was supposed to take, where it would have been secured by the police. Reuters said that the Egyptian driver of the bus later told local media he had not deviated from the route.
The country has intensified efforts to woo tourists after a sharp decline in numbers following the political turmoil linked to the revolution. The explosion claimed the lives of all passengers and seven crew members. Targeted campaigns promoting tourism have been going hand in hand with huge state-sponsored international conferences designed to promote youth empowerment, technology and foreign investment.
The most active group has been Islamic State, which has been operating mainly in North Sinai. An Isis-linked group claimed responsibility for the explosion on the Russian plane. Isis also claimed responsibility for a January attack in Hurghada where two militants entered a hotel and stabbed three tourists. The Swede and two Austrians survived. In February , the militant group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, which later pledged allegiance to Isis, claimed a bomb attack that ripped through a tourist bus on the Egyptian side of the Taba border crossing with Israel, killing four and injuring about 30 passengers.
Before the Russian plane explosion, the deadliest attack to target tourists took place in Luxor in when more than 60 people, the vast majority foreign visitors, were murdered by militants armed with guns and knives. Three of the dead were Vietnamese and one was an Egyptian tour guide.
