Egyptian police have detained scores of suspects following the terrorist attack at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik that killed almost 90 people.
At least 70 people have been arrested in the roundup, which appeared similar to police operations after last October’s incidents at the Sinai resorts of Taba and Ras Shitan, when 3 000 people were detained. Many later complained of torture, according to local people and human rights groups.
As emergency workers struggled to identify dozens of the 88 people — most of them Egyptian — who died in three explosions at the resort, the Nato secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, said that after Egypt’s deadliest ever terrorist attack showed that terrorists do not distinguish between nationalities and faiths.
In a statement on the alliance’s website, he said Saturday’s multiple bomb blasts ”demonstrate that people of all nations and of all faiths are victims of the indiscriminate threat of terrorism. They also confirm the need for the international community to stand together to defend against this threat”.
Two of the dead are reported to be British, as 240 UK holidaymakers landed at Gatwick and Manchester airports after being flown home on a special flight.
Tourists spoke of seeing dead and injured lying in the streets, and panic and hysteria as holidaymakers fled for their lives. Many visitors, some draped in blankets, burst into tears as they were met by relatives at Manchester airport.
Stuart Burns, a 34-year-old mechanic from Dunfermline, and his partner Diane Gibson (32) a teacher, were staying at the Ghazala Gardens hotel but were enjoying a night out with their son Conner (11) when the bombers struck.
”It is like a war zone out there, that is the only way to describe it. We were in a bar when the bomb went off, a mile away from the hotel but you could feel the force vibrate in your chest. We went outside the bar and there was another explosion close by,” Burns said.
”When we ran from the main town there were just bodies parts everywhere, it was like a war film. A guy was lying at the side of a bar and his legs were severed. It was just horrific.”
Ernest Stockley (59) his partner Patricia Barr (56) and their daughter, two-year-old Nichola, were in bed at the hotel when the bomb went off.
Stockley, a van driver from Merseyside, said: ”There was a terrific bang, we were shook out of bed and every piece of glass in the room exploded. All the window frames were blown in and the doors were blown off. Then we heard screaming.
”We had the child between us in bed. The cot was under the window. I looked at it later and it was half full to the top with shards of glass. I’m just so relieved we were not hurt. We were very, very lucky.” – Guardian Unlimited Â