4 Tourists Hurt by Shots as Egypt Bus Fails to Stop

Escalating the violence that has plunged Egyptian tourism into crisis, a border guard opened fire Tuesday on a busload of foreign tourists in southern Egypt, injuring four vacationers bound for the famous temple of Abu Simbel.

Three Australians and a Briton received minor injuries in the pre-dawn attack, which authorities said took place when the small bus carrying 16 tourists failed to stop at a checkpoint.

The incident comes at a time when Islamic militants have declared war on foreign tourism, launching a series of shootings and bombings, many of them directed at foreign tour buses and cruise boats. The attacks have killed at least three foreigners and left about 150 other people dead since early last year.

Officials played down the possibility that it was a border guard with Islamic sympathies who opened fire at the bus and said it appeared that the officer became “over-excited,” perhaps because of the checkpoint’s proximity to the Egyptian-Sudanese border.

Egyptian authorities have accused Sudan of smuggling terrorists and weapons across the border into Egypt to use in their campaign to unseat the government.

Witnesses told interviewers from the Australian Embassy that everyone on the bus was asleep when they were awakened by a burst of gunfire, probably a warning shot.

“Picture the situation. Everybody’s asleep in the bus. The next thing you hear is a burst of gunfire. Everybody wakes up, and they all thought they were being attacked,” embassy spokesman Paul Strickland said.

“They all started screaming at the driver, ‘Get out of here! Get out of here!’ So that’s what he did, he hit the accelerator.”

Egypt has launched a massive international campaign to convince travelers that the country remains safe for tourism. It faces a drop of nearly a third in tourism revenues, costing the country $700 million in foreign currency earnings in the final three months of last year.