Tourists flee bomb-hit Egyptian resort

Hundreds of foreign tourists packed their bags and flew home from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh yesterday after three bombs killed scores of people in the worst attack in Egypt since 1981.

Busloads of tourists, many sunburt and toting scuba diving gear, streamed off buses at the Sharm al-Sheikh airport for flights back to European capitals.

Egyptian police stepped up roadblocks around the town at the southern tip of the Sinai peninsula and detained 93 people who might have information about the bombers.

Security officials said the attackers used 500 kilogrammes of "highly explosive materials" inside two car bombs and a suitcase.

They said more than half of those explosives were packed inside a car that ripped through Sharm's old market. The second car levelled the front of the luxury Ghazala Garden hotel.

Officials believe the group behind the bombs probably had links with those who attacked hotels in Sinai last year in which 34 people were killed. Officials also gave conflicting figures for the number of casualties. An official source in Sharm el-Sheikh said the death toll was 88, but Minister of Health MohamedAwad Tag el-Din told Egyptian television yesterday that 63 died. Most of the dead are Egyptians, but among the victims were seven non-Egyptians, including a Czech and an Italian, the Tourism Ministry said. The nationalities of the others were not clear. Officials were struggling to identify 34 of the victims, a spokeswoman said.