Attacker kills 2 Ukrainian tourists in Egypt resort town of Hurghada

Egyptian policemen inspect the scene of an attack which left five of their colleagues killed in a shooting in al-Badrasheen area of Giza Province on July 14, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

At least two Ukrainian female tourists were killed and four other foreigners injured in mass stabbings at a hotel in the Red Sea resort town of Hurghada, Egypt's Interior Ministry and security sources say.

The ministry said on Friday a preliminary investigation showed the attacker had swam from a nearby public beach to gain access to the holiday resort in Hurghada, some 400 km (250 miles) south of the capital Cairo.

However, Reuters quoted officials and witnesses as saying that the two females stabbed to death were German nationals.

The suspected assailant was taken into custody and is being interrogated by the police to determine his motives, it added.

Other victims were taken to hospital but their nationalities were not immediately known.

In January 2016, two knife-wielding men with suspected links to the Daesh terrorist group attacked the Bella Vista Hotel in Hurghada and wounded two Austrians and a Swede.

Meanwhile, five Egyptian policemen, two officers and three conscripts, were killed on Friday after gunmen ambushed a security checkpoint opened fire on a car in an area south of Cairo the state-run MENA news agency and the Interior Ministry said.

The raid took place when three gunmen on a motorbike attacked police in al-Badrasheen area of Giza Province, 30 km (20 miles) south of Cairo.

“A police officer who was near the site of the attack exchanged fire with the assailants forcing them to flee," the ministry statement said.

According to witnesses, the attackers blasted the vehicle with automatic rifles, took equipment and threw petrol bombs inside the car before fleeing.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but it came after police and the army said they were closing in on militants in the Nile Valley and the Sinai Peninsula.

Egyptian security forces have long been battling Daesh-affiliated militants in the restive northeast and managed to kill a large number of them while suffering fatalities as well.

The militants frequently attack Egyptian security forces, as well as foreign tourists and the country’s Coptic Christians.

In May, gunmen attacked a group of Coptic Christians in a bus travelling to a monastery and killed 29 people. Two deadly church bombings in Alexandria and Tanta took more than 45 lives in April.