Egyptian police hunt for suspects in resort attacks

EGYPTIAN police were searching last night for three suspected bombers who they believe escaped the scene of country's deadliest terror attacks ever.

88 people were killed in the incident that sent foreign tourists in this Red Sea resort scrambling to catch flights home.

A fourth attacker apparently blew himself up in a devastating suicide bombing of a hotel, security officials said as investigators pieced together clues after the three coordinated blasts which also injured more than 100 people.

Police have rounded up more than 70 people for questioning in Sharm el-Sheik and elsewhere in the Sinai Peninsula. None have been accused of involvement in the attacks, said security officials who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the investigation.

Security officials believe four terrorists used two pick-up trucks loaded with explosives, possibly hidden under a load of vegetables, to bomb the Ghazala Gardens Hotel in Naama Bay and a crowded coffee shop in an area called the Old Market three kilometres away.

Along the route, they dropped off a third bomb rigged with a timer in a suitcase in a car park also in Naama Bay which exploded as people fled the scene of the Ghazala blast, which was apparently carried out by a suicide attacker.

The round-ups appeared similar to police operations following last October's attacks at the Sinai resorts of Taba and Ras Shitan, which Egypt's interior minister has said could be linked to the blasts in Sharm, some 201km to the south.

Two rival claims of responsibility have emerged but neither statement could be authenticated.

One group, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades of al-Qaida in Syria and Egypt, also claimed responsibility for the October bombings in Taba and for a dual shooting-bomb attack in April in Cairo. Also, the previously unknown Holy Warriors of Egypt said it had carried out the Sharm attack.

Local investigators are also examining the possibility that foreigners carried out the blasts, which have sent shock waves through this country's vital tourism industry.

"It's not just my job that's at risk today. It's everyone's here," said Mohammed Ahmed, 32, chief of a marine rescue team. "It's all about tourists - if they don't come, we don't work."

Sharm's international airport was crowded with tourists wanting to leave Egypt early for home. Others were making scheduled returns to Europe and beyond. Some airlines have flown extra planes to Sharm to carry home tourists wanting to cut short holidays.

"We didn't want to push our luck," said Andreas Heimsath, a 40-year-old German travelling with his son on return to Frankfurt. "You never know whether something like that can happen again."

But there were others who tried to continue their holiday by shopping for T-shirts and trinkets along Naama Bay's wide streets or relaxing on its beaches.

"The purpose of terrorism is they think we will run [but] the answer is no," said Franz Weinlich, a doctor from Frankfurt. "I don't like to dance to the music of terrorism."

Egyptian workers laboured to clean up rubble and twisted metal in the Old Market area and repair damaged souvenir shop fronts and cafes. Glass from the windows of bomb-ravaged cars still covered streets.

Policemen were present in large numbers around bomb blast sites and eerily quiet restaurant strips.

Egyptian health officials say at least 34 of the victims have yet to be identified.

Those killed were mostly Egyptians, but among the dead were at least seven Westerners including two Britons, two Germans, an Italian and a Czech, according to health officials.

Security officials believe the attacks were carried out by four men who had driven into Sharm along desert tracks from the north of the city while hiding at least 880lbs of explosives in their vehicles.

One died in the devastating suicide bomb attack on the Ghazala, while three others are believed to be at large.

Two of the men left a green Isuzu pickup packed with explosives in the Old Market area, which later blew up after apparently being set off by a timing device, the officials claimed. The bomb blew a five metre-wide crater into the middle of the road, which police have cordoned off.