Bombs kill at least 23 in Egyptian resort town

[Violet_Crumble]

note: not strictly I/P, but considering that it's happened in Egypt, I hope this post will be allowed to stand

At least 23 people were killed and 150 injured after a series of devastating blasts tore through the Egyptian resort town of Dahab last night.

The three explosions, which happened at around 7.15pm local time (1715 GMT), left the streets littered with body parts, glass and debris, and smoke billowing over the tourist bazaar.

Reports suggested bombs were detonated at two restaurants and a third at a supermarket in the coastal town, which is popular with British scuba divers and other tourists. Ambulance workers said many of the dead were foreigners. Other rescue workers said they counted up to 30 dead.

An interior ministry statement said there were 23 dead, including a German boy and two unidentified foreigners. Those wounded included 20 foreigners, among them three Britons, two Italians, two Germans, two French people, three Danes, a South Korean, a Lebanese, a Palestinian, an American, an Israeli and an Australian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/egypt/story/0,,1760781,00.html

[Englander]

1. Guardian;

'There were bangs ... then I saw the bodies'

· Blasts targeted on tourist areas
· Scores wounded in triple attack

Sam Jones
Tuesday April 25, 2006
The Guardian

The three bombs that exploded amid the early evening bustle of Dahab last night were a sad testament to the Red sea resort's increasing popularity. For years, the town, with its beachfront restaurants, bazaar and numerous cheap diving and windsurfing companies, was a place that drew a younger, more independent crowd than its larger neighbour, Sharm el-Sheikh.

But Dahab has grown, and over the last year or so, the little Bedouin town has begun to shrug off its hippy image. It is also popular with Egyptian holidaymakers. The beach shacks now compete with the modern luxury hotels that are springing up along the coastline and Dahab is beginning to resemble Sharm el-Sheikh. This increasing lure could be why, shortly after 7 o'clock last night, Dahab found itself under attack, as bombs exploded in the Nelson and Aladdin restaurants and the Ghazala supermarket.

Owen Norris, an Australian tourist, was eating dinner at another restaurant close by when he heard the first bomb go off. "There was a mass explosion and we ran away, and then ran back to try and find friends," he told BBC News 24. "There were people running round with blood coming out of their faces."

The bombs went off one after the other with hardly any interval, he said, shattering the windows of surrounding shops and restaurants. "As we were running we heard the second two ... were within 20ft of each other."

Khaled Eldiasty, who runs the Star of Dahab Mashraba hotel about 150 metres from the blasts, mistook the blasts for gas explosions. "They were not very loud - they were like gunshots," he said. "I thought it was gas pumps exploding, but then there was screaming and I went outside."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/egypt/story/0,,1760841,00.html