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14 injured as blast targets tourist bus near Giza pyramids
The explosion took place outside the new yet-to-be-opened Grand Egyptian Museum near the Giza Pyramids.
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At least 14 people were injured after a roadside explosion targeted a tourist bus, carrying 25 South African citizens, close to Egypt’s Giza Pyramids, state media reported on Sunday.
“The bus was hit but it didn’t look like it exploded,” Mona Zeidan, an eyewitness told CNN. Egypt’s state-run Ahram daily said that a device exploded near the bus, while the windshield of another vehicle was damaged.
“They were all minor injuries and nothing serious,” Zeidan, who drove by the site of the explosion after the incident, told CNN. “Security was inspecting the bus,” she added.
The explosion took place outside the new yet-to-be-opened Grand Egyptian Museum near the Giza Pyramids.
An official at the nearby Al-Haram Hospital told CNN that they received the tourists who were wounded in the blast.
Giza’s Grand Egyptian Museum, which cost more than USD one billion to build, is expected to open in mid-2020 after a series of delays.
The attack comes as Egypt’s vital tourism industry is showing signs of recovery after years in the doldrums because of the political turmoil and violence that followed a 2011 uprising that toppled former leader Hosni Mubarak, Al Jazeera reported.
It is the second attack to target foreign tourists near the famed pyramids in less than six months.
In December last year, three Vietnamese tourists and an Egyptian guide were killed and at least 10 others injured when a roadside bomb hit a tour bus less than four kilometres from the Giza landmarks.
