Islamists shout 'God is great' as 18 slaughtered

An Easter tour by elderly Greek pilgrims ended in tragedy yesterday when gunmen shouting "Allahu akbar", or "God is Great", opened fire at their hotel near the Pyramids.

Seventeen of the holidaymakers were killed and 16 wounded, including at least three who were hospitalised in intensive care units. An Egyptian official also died in the attack.

The tourists were moving from the Europa Hotel into a bus for a trip to the Mediterranean city of Alexandria when the four gunmen struck. One of the gunmen stood back, standing guard with a pistol, while three others blasted at the tour group with Kalashnikovs, witnesses said. They shot out windows on both sides of the bus and sprayed fire at the tourists lined up to get inside.

Blood spilled down the steps of the hotel, which is popular with European package tour groups, and with Israeli travellers. The hotel facade was punctured with bullet holes, and the stairs in front were littered with bags of sandwiches and water bottles that the tourists had packed for their journey.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but police speculated it was the work of Al-Gamma Al-Islamiya, or the Islamic Group, which has claimed most attacks on tourists since 1992. The group is dedicated to overthrowing Egypt's secular government and installing an Islamic regime.

Analysts said, too, that there could be a connection with the carnage in Lebanon, where Israeli forces have been bombing in a campaign theoretically aimed at Muslim guerrillas.

Mohammed Sid-Ahmed, an analyst with Egypt's Al-Ahram newspaper, said the gunmen may have mistaken the Greeks for Israeli tourists.

"I think the event is very much linked to the Middle East situation," he said. "It's the biggest event of this sort in Egypt ever involving tourists."

The last major attack on tourists on Cairo was on 27 December 1993, when extremists armed with guns and explosives forced their way aboard a tour bus in Old Cairo, wounding eight Austrians. But a clampdown by police drove the militants south, and most violence in recent months has been confined to the Assiut area. As a result, the tight security that used to be provided at Cairo hotels has eased.

The 88-member Greek tour group had visited Jerusalem for the Orthodox Easter Sunday last weekend, then toured monasteries in the Egyptian Sinai desert before arriving in Cairo.

Anne Borkowska, an Australian travelling with the group, was leaving the hotel restaurant when she heard shots.

"The man in front of me was shot . . . in the legs," she said. "There was blood everywhere. He must have died from the haemorrhaging."

Ms Borkowska called the victims "martyrs", saying they "died for the faith and belief in God . . . They died after worshipping and paying respects to the Almighty in Jerusalem."

A bellboy at the hotel, Sayed Zaghioul, said some of the tourists escaped death only because they were behind the bus. "If the bus had not been there. It would have been worse," Mr Zaghioul said.

Some 920 people had been killed in Egypt in attacks involving Islamic militants before yesterday's attack. Eight were foreigners.