Two tourists were killed and four wounded by a knife-wielding attacker at an Egyptian Red Sea resort, Egypt’s Interior Ministry said Friday.

There was confusion over the nationalities of the dead. An Egyptian security official said they were German and not Ukrainian as the ministry had reported.



For the record: An earlier version of this article’s headline said the attack was in Cairo. It was at a resort on the Red Sea.

The Red Sea governor, Maj. Gen. Ahmed Abdullah, said both were living in the tourist hub of Hurghada, where the attack occurred.

A man has been arrested and was being questioned in connection with the attack, the ministry said in a statement.


The tourists were rushed to a hospital, according to officials.

An Egyptian security official quoted by the Associated Press said the attacker stabbed the tourists in the face, neck and feet.

A preliminary investigation showed the suspect appeared to have swum from a nearby public beach to the resort, the interior ministry said.

Egypt’s security forces have been fighting an Islamist insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula in recent years, where militants have targeted the beleaguered tourism industry.


This year, the attacks have increasingly spread south into the capital. The latest attack came hours after five police officers were fatally shot in Cairo’s twin city of Giza early Friday by suspected Islamic militants who opened fire on their vehicle.

molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com

Twitter: @mollyhf

Special correspondent Medhat reported from Cairo and Times staff writer Hennessy-Fiske from Irbil, Iraq.


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UPDATES:

2:30 p.m.: This article was updated with new information about the nationalities of the victims.

This article was originally published at 8:50 a.m.