Boy Killed During Extremist Attack on Egypt Tourists

In the first attack on tourists in three months, suspected Muslim extremists fired on a tour bus Friday in southern Egypt, killing a Spanish child and wounding at least three others.

The attack came a little more than a week before an estimated 20,000 visitors converge on Egypt for the U.N. international population conference.

The bus was carrying 11 Spanish tourists en route from the ancient temple at Dendara to other monuments. The attack occurred about 10:30 a.m. near the town of Nag Hammadi, about 288 miles south of Cairo.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement that a 13-year-old Spanish boy, identified by the Spanish Embassy in Cairo as Pablo Rochan, was killed in the gunfire. Rochan’s father, another Spaniard and an Egyptian tour guide were wounded, officials said. Police sources said the boy’s mother also was injured.

Government officials have increased security in Cairo in advance of the conference and hope it will help rebuild Egypt’s tourist business, devastated by the radicals’ bloody 2 1/2-year campaign.

More than 390 people have been killed during the radicals’ campaign of violence, including government officials, police, minority Coptic Christians and militants.