We stand with you in fight against extremism: India tells Egypt after deadly terror attack

NEW DELHI: The Government of India on Saturday condemned Friday's deadly terror attack in Egypt targeting a tourist bus that claimed four lives and injured 10 people.

"We condemn the cowardly terrorist attack on the tourist bus near the Giza Pyramids in Egypt on December 28 in which innocent lives were lost," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement. 

"We convey our heartfelt condolences to the families of the deceased and wish a speedy recovery for those injured," it stated. 

"We stand with the government and people of Egypt in their fight against terrorism," the MEA statement said. 

Ministry of External* Affairs: India* condemns the cowardly terrorist attack on the bus near #Giza Pyramids in Egypt y'day in which innocent lives were lost.We convey heartfelt condolences to families of deceased&wish speedy recovery.We stand with Egypt in fight against terrorism https://t.co/SJSgBmDTpA

— ANI (@ANI) December 29, 2018

The statement from the MEA came a day after at least four persons were killed and 10 wounded in an explosion on Friday targeting a bus carrying Vietnamese tourists on an excursion to the Giza pyramids.

Three of the tourists were killed along with the tour guide, an Egyptian citizen, while the bus driver and nine other Vietnamese were injured.

In a major crackdown after the terror attack, the Egyptian security forces killed 40 suspected extremists during operations in several parts of the country.

The operation was in response to the attack on a tourist bus a day before that claimed four lives, the Egyptian officials said.

The operations were carried out in the Governorate of Giza and the Sinai Peninsula after an explosion on Friday targeted a bus carrying Vietnamese tourists on an excursion to the Giza pyramids, leaving four people dead and several others wounded.

No terror group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The country's Interior Ministry said that the explosion took place when a makeshift explosive device placed next to a wall on Al-Marioteya Road was detonated as the bus went past.

Vietnam's Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh said he was "deeply saddened" by the attack.

Vietnam's Foreign Ministry said on Twitter that it proposed the Egyptian government to grant emergency visas to the relatives of the victims.

Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez called the attack an act of terrorism. "The bombing of the tourist bus in El-Maryoutiya, a despicable, cowardly terrorist act which targets what cannot be targeted: The determination of Egypt and the Egyptians," he tweeted.

This was Egypt's first attack against tourists using explosives since late 2015, when a bomb blew a Russian airliner out of the skies above the Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people aboard.

The country has been under a state of emergency since April 2017, following a series of terror attacks against Coptic Christian churches in the Nile delta.