JERUSALEM, Oct. 8 -- A massive explosion tore off the front of a seaside hotel in the Egyptian resort of Taba late Thursday, killing at least 30 people and injuring more than 100 in what appeared to be a terrorist attack aimed at Israeli tourists, officials said.
The blast occurred at 10 p.m. at the Taba Hilton, a luxury high-rise hotel on the Red Sea surrounded by palm trees and coral reefs, just a few hundred yards over the border from the southern tip of Israel. The hotel, a popular venue for Middle East peace negotiators, was reportedly packed with Israeli tourists celebrating the end of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
Emergency personnel outside Yoseftal Hospital in Elat, Israel, assist a victim of one of three explosions on Egypt's Sinai Peninsula near the Israeli border.
(Israeli Television Image Via AP)
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News service accounts from the area said two more explosions subsequently rocked the Red Sea resorts of Ras Shytan and Nuweiba, about 40 miles south of Taba, but details were sketchy. One witness interviewed by Israeli television reported that two rockets were fired at his hotel in Ras Shytan; another said there was a huge blast that appeared to be from a car bomb. Egyptian hospital officials cited by the Associated Press said four were killed in the two attacks.
At the Hilton, witnesses described scenes of horror and pandemonium when a huge blast occurred at the front of the hotel, catapulting bodies across the spacious lobby area, which has a large bar, a casino and huge plate-glass windows looking out on a large salt-water pool nestled along the Red Sea. There were reports of large fires burning inside the hotel and people trapped under fallen debris. The Associated Press reported that an entire 10-floor wing collapsed.
There were no official reports about the cause of the blast, but based on accounts from the scene and the extent of the damage, suspicion immediately focused on a possible car bomb detonated at the front of the building.
"The whole front of the hotel has collapsed. There are dozens of people on the floor, lots of blood," said Yigal Vakni, an Israeli tourist interviewed by Israel's Army Radio. "I am standing outside the hotel -- the whole thing is burning and they have nothing to put it out with."
"I was in my room on the fourth floor when suddenly I heard a tremendous explosion," a tourist identified only as Shimon told the Israeli Internet site Ynet. "The explosion was in the entrance of the hotel, where the cars stop to drop off suitcases. All the glass flew everywhere. I saw a lot of injured people, at least two dead people next to the swimming pool."
Svetlana Ahmedallah, 33, said that she was in a room with her mother on the seventh floor when the blast occurred and that the building seemed to collapse. The next thing she knew, Ahmedallah said, she was on the ground.
"I was lying in bed and my mother was in the bathroom when suddenly there was a strong explosion. Everything flew, and I heard my mother shouting for help," Ahmedallah said. She said she and her mother were in Taba on a two-week vacation from their home in Tatarstan in Russia.
Ahmedallah, interviewed at a hospital just across the border from Egypt in Elat, where she was treated for minor injuries, said she apparently flew through a window. She did not know what happened to her mother, but said she assumed her mother had died. "I fell down to the ground on the bed. The whole part of the building collapsed. I don't know what happened."
Egyptian officials said they had no evidence of terrorism, the Associated Press reported. Egyptian security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the explosion occurred among gas tanks in the hotel kitchen, which is next to the casino, where many tourists were at the time.
Egypt put the death toll at 30, and the Interior Ministry said 12 Egyptians were among the dead. Israel Radio reported Friday that at least 35 people were killed.
After the explosion in Taba, many Israelis reportedly dropped everything and fled about 300 yards north to the official Israel-Egypt border crossing. Israeli officials said that after a period of confusion, Egyptian authorities began cooperating with Israeli fire and rescue personnel, allowing ambulances to cross the border to evacuate the wounded and search for those who remained trapped in the debris.
Moshe Moshiko, a fire department spokesman in Elat, said 30 firefighters were allowed to cross into Egypt to help, but others were turned away because they did not have their passports.
