Knife attacker targeted tourists

THE Egyptian university graduate who stabbed two German women to death at a popular Red Sea resort first sat and spoke to them before producing a large kitchen knife and attacking them, security officials have said.

A b d e l - R a h m a n Shaaban, 29, then left the women for dead and fled the scene in Hurghada, chased by hotel workers and security guards.

He rushed into the hotel next door where he attacked and injured four female tourists who, according to local media reports, included two Armenians, one from Ukraine and another from the Czech Republic.

“Stay back, I am not after Egyptians,” Shaaban shouted in Arabic at his pursuers, according to the officials. They eventually caught up with him, disarmed and pinned him down and later handed him over to police.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but it appears to have been inspired by recent calls made by the local affiliate of the extremist Islamic State group on its followers to attack Egypt’s minority Christians and foreign tourists.

The officials said Shaaban hails from the Nile Delta province of Kafr el-Sheikh where he attended the business school of the local branch of Al-Azhar University - the world’s foremost seat of learning of Sunni Islam and the target of mounting criticism in recent months over its alleged radical teachings and doctrinal rigidity.

Investigators are still trying to determine how Shaaban came to be in Hurghada, one of Egypt’s main Red Sea resorts.