Four killed in Egypt tourist bus attack

At least four people have been killed and 13 wounded in an attack on a tourist bus in the Egyptian Red Sea Resort of Taba yesterday.

The bus was travelling through Egypt’s Sinai region near the Israeli border, with the attack tacking palce as it arrived for a drop off at the Hilton Taba Resort, reports Al Jazeera.

The Country’s interior ministry said in a statement the tourists had set off from Cairo and were waiting at the crossing to enter Israel when the explosion took place.

Officials reportedly told Al Jazeera that the bus was carrying 32 South Korean tourists and had arrived at Taba from the ancient Greek Orthodox St Catherine's monastery in central Sinai. The bomb went off during a drop-off at a Hilton hotel.

Jean Antoine of Craft Tours, the company which owns the bus, is also reported to have said that the bomb was planted under the driver's seat inside the bus. He added that the bus was parked outside the monastery the previous night.

Taba is a Red Sea resort area popular with Israeli and other foreign tourists. The area has been the scene of attacks before, most notably in 2004 when the Taba Hilton hotel was bombed, leaving 34 people dead.

Due to the current ongoing unrest, Egypt’s tourism ministry has admitted that tourism revenue sank by 41 percent to $5.9 billion in 2013 in comparison with a year earlier.