This is one of the deadliest incidences aimed at Vietnamese tourists in recent years.
According to Cairo officials, a bus carrying 14 Vietnamese tourists and an Egyptian tour guide was blasted by a roadside bomb at 6:15pm (local time) on Friday, December 28. The explosion killed four: two tourists, a Vietnamese tour guide and the Egyptian guide; and wounded ten others. Images from local media show a tattered vehicle covered in soot with its windows completely shattered.
In an interview with Zing on December 29, Doan Thi Thanh Tra, the marketing director of Vietnamese travel agency Saigontourist, confirmed that her agency organized the tour in Cairo. The trip was supposed to last from December 22 to 28, but the bus drove past the bomb right on the last day of their vacation.
The New York Times reports that the bomb is a makeshift explosive device hidden in a wall less than four kilometers from the pyramids at Giza. At the time of writing, Egypt authorities still haven’t determined who were behind the act of terrorism, but many believe that it was the work of a local militant group known for their past use of improvised explosives.
“Vietnam is extremely angered by and strongly condemns this act of terrorism that killed and injured innocent Vietnamese people,” Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said in a statement. “Vietnam requests that Egypt promptly launch an investigation into the case and track down those responsible.”
[Photo via The New York Times]
