11 tourists kidnapped in Eyptian dessert

CAIRO, Egypt (CNN and BBC) -- A group of 11 European tourists and eight Egyptians have been kidnapped in the southern Egyptian desert and apparently taken to neighboring Sudan, an Egyptian government spokesman said today on the 22nd of September.

The tourists included five Germans, five Italians and one Romanian, a spokesman for the Egyptian prime minister, told CNN. The Egyptians were said safari company employees, the owner of the company, a security officer and drivers.

The Egyptian government believes the kidnappers have no ties to any terror group. Negotiations are under way to secure their release.

Minister Garana told Associated Press news agency that a ransom of up to $6m (£3.24m) had been demanded.

Kidnappings of foreigners in Egypt have been very uncommon in recent years.
But BBC Arab affairs analyst Magdi Abdelhadi says an incident like this could dent Egypt's reputation as a safe destination for foreign tourists and deliver a blow to an industry that brings in $8bn a year.

Previous incidents in Egypt:

• Several clashes took place in Egypt's Nile Valley during the 1990s when President Hosni Mubarak's government battled Muslim militants.
  
• Militants killed 58 foreign tourists in the southern temple city of Luxor in 1997.
• After 2004, attacks on foreigners moved to the resorts of the Sinai peninsula, where 121 people, including tourists, were killed in several bombings.

For the full story read: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7629171.stm and http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/09/22/egypt.italians.kidnapped/index.html