MOSCOW, February 16, 18:50 /ITAR-TASS/. No Russian tourists were among the victims of a blast on tourist bus in Egypt’s Sinai near the Israeli border, executive director of the Russian Association of Travel Operators Maya Lomidze told Itar-Tass on Sunday.
“According to our data, there were no Russians in the bus,” she said. “In this context, I would like to once again remind our tourists of the recommendations of the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Tourism Agency not to leave Egypt’s resort areas and not to buy excursions to the places that have been banned for visiting by the Russian Foreign Ministry.”
An explosion occurred when a tourist bus owned by one of Egypt’s biggest travel companies, Travco Travel, drove just a couple of dozens of meters into Egypt after crossing the border with Israel. Some reports say the explosive device was planted off the road, others say the bus was subjected to gunfire from hand anti-tank grenade launcher.
Five people were killed. Three of these five were South Korean citizens, citizenship of the two others has not yet been established. Meanwhile, according to some sources, all the passengers onboard the bus were South Korean nationals who were coming back from an sightseeing trip to Israel.