A suicide bomber was behind a deadly blast that tore through a bus carrying South Korean tourists, killing at least four people, as it waited near an Egypt-Israel border crossing in Sinai on Sunday, Egyptian security officials said, according to Reuters.
The bombing Sunday was the first targeting foreign tourists in the Sinai in nearly decade, raising fears that Islamic militants who have been waging a campaign of violence against security forces in the peninsula are now turning to attack tourism to affect the economy, Reuters reported.
The blast killed the driver and three South Koreans and wounded at least a dozen other tourists on the bus, Egyptian security officials said, according to Reuters.
The bus was carrying 33 South Korean tourists, a guide and the driver who were both Egyptian, according to Reuters. The bus was stopped while waiting to cross into Israel at the border area of Taba when the blast took place.
The bomber pushed in through the open bus door when the driver and two South Koreans were getting back on the bus and detonated his explosives, Interior Ministry spokesman Hani Abdel-Latif said, according to Reuters.
A badly burnt body at the site of the blast is now thought to belong to the bomber and Egyptian forensic experts were at the site on Monday to inspect the badly damaged yellow bus, Reuters reported.
The tourists were Christians from the Jincheon Jungang Presbyterian Church who had saved for years to visit Biblical sites on the 60th anniversary of their church, Choe Gyu-seob, a curate at the church, told reporters, according to Reuters.
According to an itinerary provided to local media by the church, the sightseers left South Korea last Monday and were to visit Turkey, Egypt and Israel over 12 days, Reuters reported.
Nearly 30 percent of South Koreans are Christian, and many are active in overseas mission work, with more than 25,000 missionaries dispatched to 169 countries, according to the Korea World Missions Association's 2013 report, according to Reuters.
