One of the survivors of the Egyptian hotel terror attack has spoken for the first time about the moment a jihadist tried to stab him in the chest with a knife and slashed him in the neck four times.

Sammie Olovsson, 27, from Sweden, told friends he was in a stable condition and recovering in hospital in Hurghada after he was repeatedly attacked by one of the jihadis.

The two attackers, armed with a pellet gun and knives, targeted tourists at the outside restaurant of the Bella Vista Resort near the Red Sea. Three tourists were injured while one jihadist was shot dead and the second attacker was wounded and captured alive by security forces.

Sammie Olovsson said he was recovering in hospital in Hurghada after he was stabbed four times, suffering several wounds to his neck. He said he was 'lucky' the attacker didn't sever any of his arteries of organs

Sammie said that the knife only cut some muscles in his neck but no arteries or nerves, and confirmed that he would be able to leave the hospital today

Shortly after the attack, Sammie updated his Facebook profile, saying he was 'lucky' to have deflected the blows of the knife when the attacker tried to stab him in the chest.

He said that the knife only cut some muscles in his neck but no arteries or nerves, and confirmed that he would be able to leave the hospital today.

Samie's father Jan-Eric Olovsson, 64, told the Swedish Expressen newspaper that they were having dinner in the restaurant when the attackers stormed in.

'Everything went really fast. We sat there and ate and then they showed up,' he said.

'I thought they came from outside. I myself had the gun pointed at me three times, and Sammie was stabbed with the knife.'

'I told him to lie still,' he said, recalling how his son lay in a pool of blood. 'I got up a few times and when I saw it was clear, I ran out on the street and tried to get hold of an ambulance.'

Renata and Wilhelm Weisslein, both Austrian nationals, and were also wounded in the attack.

The Olovssons' trip was organised by one of Sweden's largest tour operators, Apollo. The company's head Peter Browall said guests were given the option of relocating after the attack.

'Some have decided to do so. Not all have. This is done based on individual dialogues we have with them,' he said.

Hurghada is 'a small destination for Apollo Sweden', Mr Browall said. He could not provide any figures, but said interest in Egypt had dropped following recent attacks.

Zainab Feili, a young Swede who survived Friday's ordeal unharmed, described a scene of chaos. 'Everybody just ran. We hear shoot. Everybody cries. It was awful,' she said.

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Shortly after the attack, Sammie updated his Facebook profile, saying he was 'lucky' to have deflected the blows of the knife when the attacker tried to stab him in the chest

Survivor: Three tourists were injured while one jihadist was shot dead and the second attacker was wounded and captured alive by security forces

Renata Weisslein was also wounded in the attack after two jihadis tried to carry out a massacre inside the hotel's restaurant

Despite the horrific attack at the Bella Vista Hotel, the Red Sea resort's pool and sun loungers were still busy early this morning

Tourists returned to the pool in the morning after the attack at Bella Vista Hotel

The hotel said that the attack took 'less than four minutes' as two 'drugged men' attacked three tourists

Life appears to have returned to normal as these two men take some time out to relax by the seaside

A large number of tourists were seen boarding coaches upon leaving the Bella Vista hotel

Additional security personnel have been deployed at the entrance of the hotel following the attack

The Bella Vista Resort released a statement on social media, claiming the two attackers were 'drugged'

A post on Bella Vista Hotel Facebook page dismissed rumours surrounding the attack as 'nonsense and c**p'

Security forces said the attackers arrived by sea to launch the onslaught on the beachside Bella Vista Hotel, in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada.

They claimed to have killed an attacker and have seriously wounded a second armed with a knife.

The interior ministry denied initial reports that the terrorists were wearing suicide vests, confirming that no explosive devices were found at the scene.

The two attackers entered the hotel's outdoor restaurant at the front of the building and randomly started to attack the tourists.

The attackers were reportedly carrying the black flag of tawheed with the shahada, the Muslim testament of faith, written it white. The symbolic flag is commonly used by ISIS.

Egyptian authorities today said the dead attacker was a 21-year-old student from the Cairo neighbourhood of Giza as video emerged of his accomplice being questioned as he lay injured in the aftermath.

The video, which was posted to Facebook and picked up by Egyptian media allegedly shows the wounded attacker being questioned while lying bloody and bandaged on the floor.

He is filmed wearing only his boxers and moaning in pain as men with medical gloves slap his face and attempt to give him CPR – despite him being conscious.

'Where are you from?', they ask. 'What's your name, your name!?'

Throughout the man appears confused as he tries to answer their questions.

'How old are you? 31? 30?' one man asks.

Egypt's Tourism Minister Hisham Zaazou visited the resort today and said that the attackers aim was to damage the country's tourism industry. He also promised greater security measures will be announced in the coming days

Egypt's Tourism Minister Hisham Zaazou visited the resort today and said that the attackers aim was to damage the country's tourism industry.

'Over the coming days we will announce even greater security measures to safeguard all tourists visiting Egypt.

'This follows the recent important announcement concerning the appointment of the international risk and security company Control Risks to assist us further to enhance airport security.

'The welfare of the tourists visiting Egypt is of the greatest importance to us and will continue to be so.

'No stone will be left unturned to ensure their security despite the global challenges we have witnessed in cities throughout the world,' he said.

All three wounded tourists, reportedly two Austrians and a Swede, were taken to hospital, where one was treated and discharged, the security statement said.

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 member of the hotel's management staff who witnessed the incident told AP that 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.

Hurghada is more than 100 kilometres from Sharm el Sheikh, which lies across the red sea at the bottom of the Sinai peninsula

Interrogated: The second attacker was seriously wounded by Israeli security forces who repelled the two knifemen after the injured three tourists

Killed: Security forces said they killed one of the attackers who had arrived by sea to launch the onslaught on the beachside Bella Vista Hotel, in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada

Police have shot dead one of the gunmen and a second was injured

Pictures reportedly from the scene posted by Egyptian media Youm7 shows the black ISIS flag and a suicide device (top left)

Egyptian security services outside the entrance to Bella Vista Hotel, where the incident happened in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada

Cleaners try to clean up the large blood stains on the pavement outside the entrance of the Bella Vista Hotel

Ahmed Abdullah, governor of Egypt's Red Sea Governorate, visited some of the injured tourists from the terrifying attack. Renata Weisslein, 72, (pictured left) was one of the tourists hurt last night

The attack came just hours after the local affiliate of the Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack a day earlier on a hotel in Cairo near the Giza Pyramids. No one was hurt in the Thursday attack.

British couple Kyle Hadden, 24, and Mark Higgins, 43, arrived in Hurghada just hours before the attack.

'We were just walking along the beach after dropping our bags off in the room when we heard five gunshots,' Mr Hadden told MailOnline.

'We thought they were fireworks, but then got back to our hotel and had a Facebook message from a friend asking if we were ok.'

The couple are staying in the hotel next to the Bella Vista Resort, just a few minutes away.

'When we looked outside we saw a lot of police cars going past. Hotel staff told us the hotel [Bella Vista] was about 30 minutes away - but I can see it from here - it's the next one along,' he said.

'The only updates we're getting is from my mum who's worried sick,' he told MailOnline from his hotel.

Mr Hadden, who works for the ambulance service said he had reported their concerns to holiday company Thomas Cook before they traveled and had asked to go to Turkey instead because of safety concerns.

'We spoke to Thomas Cook before we came saying we didn't want to go. They said it would be fine to travel and that everything would be fine.'

Mark Nolan, 36, arrived back from the Red Sea resort town of Hurghada on Tuesday, but told MailOnline he and his family spent the entire time on the resort as it was too dangerous to leave.

'We booked the trip just a few days before the Russian plane bombing, but when I contacted First Choice to cancel - they wouldn't listen and wanted to charge me 35 per cent,' said Mr Nolan, an electrician from London.

Kyle Hadden, 24 (right) and Mark Higgins, 43, (left) were walking on the beach in Hurghada when they heard gunshots

Police and security forces have increased their presence at the scene in the wake of the attack

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

Once there, Mark, father of two daughters aged three and two said he felt unsafe and that the guests they spoke to were also only there because they couldn't get their money back.

'At the airport the security is quite good but then you're travelling on these empty desert roads.

Mr Nolan said there were police road blocks in front of his resort, which near the Bella Vista Hotel.

'There were metal detectors at the door - but everybody just walked round them.

'You can't leave the resort and there are no excursions - you wouldn't dare get on a bus to go and see the pyramids, which is why we went to Egypt in the first place.'

An official statement from the Egyptian Ministry of the Interior said the attack was carried out by two individuals armed with an 'air gun and knives'.

The statement added that one of the attackers had been killed and the second was in custody.

Egypt has been battling an insurgency by Islamic militants led by the Islamic State's affiliate.

The insurgency has been focused in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula but has frequently spilled over into the mainland since the ousting in 2013 of the Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.

The Hurghada attack is a dangerous precedent since Egypt's Red Sea resorts have done better than elsewhere in the country in withering the slump suffered by the vital tourism sector in the five years of turmoil since a popular uprising toppled longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak.

Egyptian media Youm7 reports this is one of the attackers killed by security forces

The incident happened at the Bella Vista Resort in the city of Hurghada, by the Red Sea (file photo of the city)

Thursday's attack was also significant in that it targeted a hotel in Cairo, a heavily policed city, at a time when security appeared to improve in recent months after a series of disruptive bomb attacks.

Egypt's tourist industry was decimated after the downing of a Russian passenger plane over Sinai in October.

The local Islamic State affiliate has claimed it downed the aircraft with a bomb. All 224 people on board were killed in the crash, mostly Russian tourists.

The Friday evening attack came just hours after the local affiliate of the Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack a day earlier on a hotel in Cairo near the Giza Pyramids. No one was hurt in the Thursday attack.