(SomaliNet) An Egyptian official said on Tuesday that kidnappers who had seized 19 hostages including European tourists in a remote desert area of Egypt had threatened to kill them if attempts were made to find them by plane. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the kidnapped tour operator contacted his German wife and told her of the threat, which she reported to Egyptian authorities. The masked kidnappers took the 19 people - five Italians, five Germans, a Romanian and eight Egyptians - while they were on an adventure safari in south-western Egypt on Friday.
It was the first time foreign tourists had been kidnapped in Egypt. The case posed a new challenge to the security-conscious government in a country which depends on tourism for six percent of the national economy.
The official said Egyptian authorities had traced to the Sudan calls from the kidnappers to the tour operator's German wife. But a Sudanese foreign ministry official said it was unlikely the hostages were in the Sudan because of border security and the lack of hiding places in the remote area.
Security sources said on Monday the kidnappers were demanding $6-million (R70-million) to free the hostages, but said there was no sign militant Islamists were involved.
Meanwhile, attacks on tourists in the Nile Valley and the nearby deserts have been rare in recent years, though a series of bombings targeted tourists in the Sinai Peninsula between 2004 and 2006. Tourism minister Zoheir Garrana told Egyptian television on Monday that the kidnappers were "most likely" Sudanese. But a security source said they could also be citizens of nearby Chad, where Sudanese and Chadian rebels operate, or Egyptian.