7.22.2005

Explosions in Sharm El Sheikh - 83 Dead

Latest at bottom of post.

NPR's reporting explosions in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt...

Haaretz Service and Reuters have the most detailed report:
Explosions in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in the early hours of Saturday morning killed at least 30 people and wounded more than 100, Egyptian officials said.

"Many of the injuries are very serious and they are in critical condition," said the doctor at Sharm el-Sheikh International Hospital, who asked not to be named.

Police said the explosions were caused by four car bombs in Sharm el-Sheikh and the nearby resort of Naama Bay.

The explosions caused pandemonium in the resort as people rushed to go home for fear of more car bombs, said one resident, who asked not to be named.

The first explosion, shortly after 1 A.M., was audible more than 1 km away, a local resident said. It started a fire and smoke billowed over the town.

About 15 minutes later, more explosions were audible from the direction of Naama Bay, about six km away, he said.

A police source said four car bombs appeared to have exploded - one near the Sharm el-Sheikh bazaar, and three in Naama Bay, at a tourist bazaar, the Ghazala Hotel and the Moevenpick Hotel.

"The [Ghazala] hotel was completely burned down, destroyed," said Amal Mustafa, 28, an Egyptian who was visiting Sharm with her family and who drove by the Ghazala Gardens.

Naama Bay has dozens of luxury hotels popular with divers and holidaymakers from Europe.

Khaled Sakran, a Sharm resident, said he saw the first blast from the Old Market. "I saw the saw the fire in the sky," he said. "Right after, I saw a light in the sky and heard another explosion, coming from Naama Bay."

Although the explosions took place after 1 A.M., the bazaars would have been busy with holidaymakers at this time of year because the daytime is so hot, residents said.

Ahmed Fawzi, an Egyptian lawyer visiting Naama Bay on business, told Reuters that one of the explosions ripped the door of his office off its hinges.

A resident living 10 km from Sharm el-Sheikh told Reuters explosions had shaken the windows of his house.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has a holiday villa in the Golf Hotel, close to the Moevenpick.

In October 2004, more than 30 people were killed, many of them Israeli, in explosions in Sinai resorts packed with Israeli tourists.
Is it normal for cable news to take this long to start telling us about anything related to violence? Where's CNN? Fox? MSNBC? Nobody on cable is saying anything (not sure about the News Hour)....

UPDATE: MSNBC finally reported the Reuters version at 7:12 PM CDT. Visual: a map. Audio: Anchorman reading. Was the delay because they had to make a map? Couldn't they get somebody on the phone? Just curious.

NOTE: I've been updating the figure in the title, not the story itself.

UPDATE: Here's a much more detailed account from the NYT.

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