Death toll rises after blasts at Egyptian holiday resorts

1.00pm

JERUSALEM - Bomb blasts at three Egyptian Red Sea resorts used by holidaying Israelis are now thought to have killed at least 30 people.

A blast that tore through Taba's Hilton hotel, just yards from the border crossing point, was followed shortly by explosions at two other resort towns in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

Israeli media said the Hilton hotel in Taba was ablaze and 10 floors had collapsed, possibly trapping some people in the rubble. Israeli rescue teams rushed over the border.

"I heard a huge explosion. The wall near me collapsed and people began to run. There were many casualties," one Israeli witness called Yigal told Israel's Army Radio.

"The explosion was outside. When we went out we saw the shops and the internal wall of the hotel had collapsed...

"Some people said it was a gas canister explosion and others said it was a terrorist attack. There are a lot of people (lying on the ground). There is a lot of blood, a lot of screaming."

Israeli media said at least 30 people were killed, while Egyptian hospital sources said about 100 injured had been taken to the Taba hospital. The nationalities of the casualties were not immediately known.

Israeli security forces had warned travellers against visiting Egyptian resorts on the Red Sea, saying they might be targeted by Palestinian militants waging a four-year-old uprising or by Islamic groups.

As many as 10,000 Israelis were thought to be in Sinai for the Sukkot Jewish holiday, officials said.

Israeli security sources said they were still unsure who might have been responsible for the explosions.

"The multiple attacks have the hallmarks of al-Qaeda, but there could be Palestinian involvement as well," claimed one senior source.

Radio stations reported explosions in the Egyptian resorts of Nueiba and Ras al-Sultan dozens of kilometres to the southwest of Taba where the first explosion occurred.

"There was an explosion ... It was in an area south of Rus al-Sultan, near an area where there are bungalows along a beach," Yeshi al-Hara told Israel's Channel 10 television from near the scene.

"There were very strong explosions," said Roni Goserski from near Nueiba. "There were huge mushroom clouds."

Sinai was captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war but returned to Egypt after a 1979 peace deal, one of the few that Israel has with Arab countries.

The Israeli-built Taba Hilton was the scene of failed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in January 2001.

Hundreds of Israelis have been killed in suicide bombings during four years of conflict with the Palestinians. Egyptian resorts had remained popular with Israelis despite widespread animosity in Egypt to the Jewish state.

Israeli firefighters and ambulances rushed to Taba after an initial delay. Officials in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office said he had contacted Egyptian officials to ensure they could cross.

Israel's Foreign Ministry was preparing to evacuate all Israelis from Sinai in coming hours.

- REUTERS