[4] Later, the Egyptian government announced that the attack had been plotted abroad and carried out by non-Egyptians.

[5] On the day of the attack the bus had been travelling from Rafah on Egypt's border with the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip to Cairo via the Suez Canal port city of Ismailia.

As the bus neared one of Cairo's many commuter towns a white Peugot sedan swerved in front of the vehicle, causing it to stop.

At this point several gunmen leapt out of the car and opened fire on the bus with assault rifles forcing the following buses to reverse back up the road.

The casualties were initially taken to a hospital in the Cairo suburb of Heliopolis but were later transported by an Israeli military aircraft back to their home country.