90 Casualties Reported In Egypt Resort Blasts

CNN.com

April 24, 2006

Red Sea town packed with vacationers

(CNN) -- More than 90 people are reported killed or injured in at least three explosions Monday in the Red Sea resort town of Dahab, an Egyptian Interior Ministry official told CNN.

The explosions, described as a terrorist attack by the official, took place in a market and a hotel.

"There were body parts and debris in the street ... There are ambulances and cars taking people to hospital," one witness, who refused to be named, told Reuters news service.

"There is smoke coming from the area and there are people running everywhere," Reuters quoted another witness as saying.

"It's in a big tourist area in front of hotels, restaurants and the nightlife," one witness, who said he was about 100 meters from the blasts, told CNN.

Witnesses reported hearing the blasts and said they saw smoke coming from a market in the Sinai Peninsula town. Because of the Coptic Easter holiday, the resort town is crowded with tourists.

In July, 84 people were killed, including at least two bombers, and more than 200 others wounded in several suicide bombings in the nearby resort town of Sharm-el-Sheikh. Egyptian officials believe Bedouin residents of Sinai with connections to al Qaeda were responsible for those incidents. (Full story)

In October 2004, 34 people were killed in attacks on the Sinai resorts of Taba and Ras Shitan.

Israeli ambulance services, meanwhile, were beefing up their presence on the border with Egypt, and a hospital in Eilat was getting extra blood supplies, officials said. Israel medical services have offered help to Egypt, saying they have 20 ambulances ready to go to the peninsula, but said no answer has been received from Egyptian medics.

CNN's Ben Wedeman, Caroline Faraj and Michal Zippori contributed to this report.