NZ defence staff escape Egypt bombs

A security guard walks past the blood-stained floor of a building in Sharm el-Sheikh. Picture / Reuters

Four New Zealand defence personnel escaped injury when terrorist bombs ripped through an Egyptian tourist resort yesterday, killing at least 88 people and injuring another 200.

Late last night a group citing ties to al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the bombings, according to a statement posted on an Islamic website.

The group, calling itself the Abdullah Azzam Brigades in Syria and Egypt, said that its "holy warriors" were responsible for two car bombs, and possibly a suitcase bomb, that ripped through public areas in Sharm el-Sheikh, in Egypt's worst attack in nearly a decade.

The resort is popular with divers and European holidaymakers, and shaken tourists spoke of mass panic and hysteria as people fled the carnage in the early hours, with bodies strewn across the roads, people screaming and sirens wailing.

One blast tore the front off the Ghazala Gardens Hotel in Naama Bay, the site of many luxury hotels.

Thirteen Italians and at least 20 other foreigners - including Britons, French, Spaniards, Dutch, Qataris and Kuwaitis - are believed to be among the dead and wounded.

The New Zealand troops were in camp just a few kilometres away when the first bomb went off, just after 1am (10am NZT).

Eyewitnesses said a massive fireball tore through the carpark outside a shopping mall in the Sharm el-Sheikh town.

The explosion turned cars into skeletons of twisted metal, blew down masonry on nearby buildings and shattered windows for hundreds of metres around.

Sharm residents said they heard two more explosions coming from Naama Bay in quick succession. Witnesses said the first hit the hotel, and the second a taxi rank.

"The whole area was quickly covered in debris. There was a huge ball of smoke that mushroomed up. It was mass hysteria," Charlie Ives, a London policeman on holiday, told the BBC.

New Zealand Navy Lieutenant Commander Matt Wray and three army sergeants worked through the night assisting locals in evacuating casualties to Cairo hospitals.

Wray is a liaison officer, and the three army personnel are driving instructors who have been training American troops for the conditions.

Army Lieutenant Colonel Dan Gawn, who is heading the New Zealand contingent in the Sinai, said the four could hear the explosions quite close to where they were.

New Zealand has 26 army, navy and airforce personnel based in the Sinai with the 5000-strong Multinational Force and Observers.

Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff said there were no reports of any New Zealand casualties, but diplomats were keeping in touch with the British embassy. The Government would be sending a message of sympathy, and again expressing its rejection of terrorism and condemnation of the taking on innocent lives.

Prime Minister Helen Clark compared the bombings to the attack in Indonesia in 2002 that killed three New Zealanders and 88 Australians.

"Obviously where the terrorist bombings have occurred is in a major tourism resort where many Western people go so it is of great concern," she said.

The Government would review the official travel advice on Egypt, which previously cautioned tourists to be security-conscious and avoid crowded places, and warned of the possibility of terrorist action.

Egyptian Tourism Minister Ahmed el-Maghrabi said the incidents would inevitably affect tourism in the short term.

(additional reporting: Agencies, Patrick Crewdson)

- HERALD ON SUNDAY