We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
TWO SUSPECTED MILITANTS stabbed and wounded three foreign tourists — two Austrians and a Swede — at a hotel in Egypt’s Red Sea resort city of Hurghada tonight, the Interior Ministry said.
Security forces opened fire at the two assailants, killing one and seriously wounding the other, according to a statement.
The wounded attacker was arrested, according to security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.
The Interior Ministry, which is in charge of police, said two men armed with knives had entered the restaurant at the front of the seaside, four-star Bella Vista Hotel and attacked the tourists.
The ministry identified the deceased attacker as 21-year-old Mohammed Hassan Mohammed Mahfouz, a student from the Cairo neighbourhood of Giza.
Both attackers, it said, carried knives and pellet guns.
All three wounded tourists were taken to hospital, where one was treated and discharged, the statement said.
There was no word in the statement on the condition of the other two, but Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed described the condition of the three as “not serious.”
Security officials had initially said the attackers wounded two tourists, a Dane and a German, but such discrepancies are common in the immediate aftermath of terror attacks.
A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs told TheJournal.ie:
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is aware of a shooting in Egypt and stands ready to provide consular assistance.
A member of the hotel’s management staff who witnessed the incident said the attackers sneaked into the Bella Vista from a hotel next door, accessing the facility from the beach.
The slain attacker, he said, appeared to want to take a female tourist hostage, dragging her into the hotel’s lobby with his knife held against her neck when he was shot dead by a policeman.
The witness spoke on condition of anonymity in line with the hotel’s management regulations.
The attack came just hours after the local affiliate of the Islamic State group (ISIS) claimed responsibility for an attack yesterday on a hotel in Cairo near the Giza Pyramids.
No one was hurt in yesterday’s attack, in which a group of over a dozen men fired flares and birdshot at a security post outside the hotel where Arab Israeli tourists were staying.
The Hurghada attack is a dangerous precedent since Egypt’s Red Sea resorts have done better than elsewhere in the country in weathering the slump suffered by the city’s vital tourism sector in the five years of turmoil since an uprising toppled longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak.
Thursday’s Giza attack was also significant in that it targeted a hotel in Cairo, a heavily policed city of some 18 million residents, at a time when security appeared to improve in recent months after a series of bomb attacks.
Contains reporting by the Associated Press.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Reid said he believes there has been a “huge recognition” of the investment needed in the healthcare system in Ireland. Well I would say more than enough money has been given to that runaway train over the last few years and they still can not run it properly. Look at the Children’s hospital and the overspend there
@Maurice O Neill: Very true Maurice. Bed capacity down 50% from this time last year & the hospitals still cannot cope. People are dying at home from other ailments because they know if they go into hospital they will die alone. The one thing this has taught me is, if you can look after elderly relations at home do so, because if they go into a nursing home you may not be able to make sure they are been cared for correctly & you may never see them again.
@Maurice O Neill: And Martin wants to build one in Cork.
@Maurice O Neill: You try and deal with the HSE as a supplier, they are the absolute pits. We had a better product that would have saved millions and they blocked us every step of the way.
@Dave Barrett: Will never happen.
@Fred the Muss…: any proof to go along with this?
@seamus toomey: Loads of proof but I’m not making it public on the Journal. I still have to deal with the HSE
@Fred the Muss…: unless you are an event management company like Roqu. Then they’ll give you €14m up from for ventilators that don’t work
And just wait until this is all over and the trolley numbers will be up at around 800 a day. You will not see him or his buddies in NEPHET for love or money come out and comment on that scandal.
@Maurice O Neill: Fully agree, massive inequalities, incompetence and wanton greed in the management of the Healthcare system. Reflects very badly in the great people that work within it.
@Capax: reflects badly on the great people that work within the healthcare system. (Auto type error)
Statement of the century. Who elected him to anything. Go back and do your job like you are supposed to do and let the elected people run the Country.
@Maurice O Neill: A guy who is employed in public health commenting on public health, shock horror. ” Go back and do your job”….. you must be one of those freedumb fighters. Hows Donnie and Gemma these days?
Cometh the hour, cometh the man (or woman). Paul Reid has been a rock throughout this pandemic. Well done Paul. Thank you for your hard work in these trying times.
@Fionn Darland: Ya right
@Fionn Darland: I can confirm he is a man.
You say you would really like to have known better about the nursing homes… Well you know now…. so put the highest measure of care and protection there now.
@emer daly: how could he not have known? 2 to 3 weeks beforehand the Spanish Army had to go into a nursing home in Madrid. This was international news. https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/03/24/820711855/spanish-military-finds-dead-bodies-and-seniors-completely-abandoned-in-care-home
@Derdaly: not just Spain. The whole world knew as nursing homes in Korea, China, Italy, Spain were being overrun. NPHET knew this and actively encouraged the spread of the virus through nursing homes killing hundreds of residents. So many NPHET hole-lickers here and not one of them is interested in holding NPHET to account. They would rather there were hundreds more dead residents than admit – maybe, just maybe – that NPHET is composed primarily of HSE careerists rather than actual experts. The CMO is guilty of the Cervical Scandal and attacking the victims of such, and those victims continue to die and will do for several years, yet Holohan is a God to some on here.
A wannabe T.D.
Who are you anyway??? Paul Reid who?? Shut down the HSE quango! Not fit for purpose!!
@Jonnie Marre: problem with shutting down the hse is they create another layer of management without dismantling the old one. we are paying the price for that when the regional boards were abolished (in name only)
Well Paul you don’t really need to tell us this. There is NO way we will continue with this madness indefinitely! Mid 2021 you have your deadline vaccine or no vaccine. Dr Tony is Holohan is god, judge, jury and it’s about time someone pointed that out to him! Get the HSE up to scratch none of this would be needed
The masks are here to stay.
@Jim Lingk: That wouldn’t be a bad thing. The flu virus, wouldn’t be so prevalent every year.
Sounds like trump it will go away but in the meantime it’s a mess deaths etc
In case of a future pandemic I’m going to sell my house.
Already there Paul. Already there…
A bit shocked at the statement blaming unfortunate meat factory workers. They had a paid job and depended on it to buy the most basic groceries and essentials. Why on earth put out a statement that anyone “was reluctant to” live on air? Who wouldn’t be “reluctant” to give up work with zero support and sick pay? How were they supposed to buy food and medicine?
Dumb obvious statement….tomorrow is another day…soon be xmas….another year older…..m
have your say