afrol News, 22 September - At least 11 foreign tourists and four Egyptians were snatched today in Aswan in remote southern Egypt, a government spokesperson has said.

Five Italians, five Germans and a Romanian were reported to be among tourists. The group was on a trip in Egypt's vast, rugged and mostly uninhabited western desert near Sudanese-Egyptian borders when they were kidnapped.

Italian Foreign Ministry confirmed five Italians were among tourists, and said it was in touch with other foreign ministers and Italian Embassy in Cairo.

The ministry said it had set up a crisis unit to deal with the incident. There were unconfirmed reports that group may have been taken across border into Sudan.

Egyptian TV said tourists were in four vehicles when they were kidnapped near Egypt-Sudan border. A driver, two tour guides and a security guard were also abducted, Egyptian TV said, citing a senior official.

But Egyptian officials said circumstances of the abduction remained unclear. "We don't know yet who did this and we don't know whereabouts of the tourists," an official told Associated Press.

Officials also told Egyptian TV that four kidnappers were involved and were reportedly asking for ransom, further stating that Egyptian and Sudanese authorities were coordinating in solving kidnapping.

No previous instances of tourists being attacked in Western desert have been recorded, but several clashes took place in Egypt's Nile Valley during 1990s when president Hosni Mubarak's government battled Muslim militants.

There were initially reports that the group included Israeli tourists. But Israelis were not mentioned in later reports, and Israeli foreign ministry denied any of its nationals were involved.

Kidnaps of foreigners in Egypt have been very uncommon in recent years.

But there has been a series of bombings targeted at tourists in resorts in Sinai Peninsula between 2004 and 2006. Egypt blamed Sinai attacks on a group of Bedouin with militant Islamist views.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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