Cairo bomb kills tourist and injures 21 others

Published on Sunday 22 February 2009 23:50

AN EXPLOSION ripped through a famous bazaar in Cairo yesterday, killing a French woman and wounding at least 21 people, most of them foreigners.

The blast hit the bustling main plaza at the Khan el-Khalili, a 650-year-old market packed with tourists buying souvenirs, jewellery and handicrafts next to one of the city's most revered shrines, the Hussein mosque.

Within an hour of the attack, Egyptian police found a second explosive device and detonated it safely. Security officials said three people were in custody.

There were initial reports that a pair of grenades were thrown, but an official statement from the government said the attack involved a homemade bomb placed under a bench in the main plaza.

"We were serving our customers as usual, and all of a sudden there was a large sound," said Magdy Ragab, 42, a waiter at a nearby caf.

"We saw heavy grey smoke and there were people running everywhere … some people were injured by the stampede, not the shrapnel."

Blood stains smeared the marble paving stones in front of the Hussein single mosque, where worshippers had been conducting evening prayers when the blast happened.

"I was praying and there was a big boom and people started panicking and rushing out of the mosque, then police came and sealed the main door, evacuating us out of the back," said Mohammed Abdel Azim, 56.

A medic at the scene said the French woman died in the intensive care unit of the nearby Hussein hospital.

The government said in a statement that the wounded included three Saudis, 13 French, a German and four Egyptians, including a young child.

The country's health minister said that the injuries were comparatively minor.

Tourism is one of Egypt's major sources of foreign income and a target for terrorists.

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. Between 2004 and 2006, a string of bombings killed 120 people, including in the Sinai's main resort of Sharm el-Sheik.