Egyptian police killed 40 "terrorists" on Saturday in an attack on a tourist bus in Giza that killed three Vietnamese tourists and their Egyptian tour guide.
The Interior Ministry said in a statement that "several security strikes were raided and the raids of these elements at the same time in the governorates of Giza and North Sinai after the authorization of the Supreme State Security Prosecutor, killing 40 terrorists," 30 of them in Giza.
The statement added that the movement of security forces came after "information was available to the national security sector about the preparation of a group of terrorist elements and planning to carry out a series of hostilities targeting state institutions, especially economic and tourism industry elements and members of the armed forces and police and Christian houses of worship."
A security official told AFP that the raids were "carried out early on Saturday."
In the city of Giza (west of Cairo) two raids, according to the statement, the first killed 14 "terrorists" and the second killed 16.
On the other hand, ten "terrorists" were killed in the city of El Arish in North Sinai, where the Egyptian branch of the Islamic State Organization (Sinai) is concentrated.
Three Vietnamese tourists and their tour guide were killed on Friday evening when a bomb exploded at a bus they were driving in Giza near the pyramids.
The bus was carrying 14 Vietnamese tourists when it was attacked, the Interior Ministry said.
On Friday, the Egyptian attorney general issued instructions to the investigating authorities to determine the reasons for the attack.
Egyptian Prime Minister Mustapha Medbouli visited the wounded in the hospital and said in remarks carried by Egyptian television networks that the bus "went out of the safe path by the security forces without reporting a change of course."
No one has claimed responsibility for the incident so far.
The attack was condemned and condemned by religious institutions such as the sheikh of Al-Azhar and the Church, as well as a number of Arab and foreign countries.
The Vietnamese Foreign Ministry condemned in a statement Saturday "the terrorist act that killed and wounded many innocent Vietnamese."
It called on Egypt to "open an investigation soon, and to prosecute and punish those who carried out this terrorist act."
Tourism company Saigon Tourist, which organized the Vietnamese tourists´ trip, said they were "on their way to a restaurant for dinner" when the explosion took place.
Company officials are expected to arrive in Cairo on Saturday with a number of relatives of the victims.
Nguyen Fu, who killed his older sister and injured her husband in the explosion, told AFP he had applied for a visa to Egypt, hoping to arrive on Saturday.
"We hope to bring my sister back home and be able to settle things well in the next couple of days," he said.
"It is ready to coordinate with the (Vietnamese) embassy to facilitate the travel arrangements of those who want the families of the injured to come from Vietnam to Egypt," the ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
Security measures are usually taken in the vicinity of tourist areas and are escalated with the advent of Coptic holidays and New Year holidays.
"There is no country in the world that is not subjected to attacks," Medbouli said in his remarks on Friday. "Any country in the world can not guarantee 100 percent security."
The attack on tourists in Egypt is the first of its kind since July 2017, when two foreign women were killed and four wounded in a knife attack at a seaside resort in Hurghada, in the east of the country.
In January 2016, three European tourists were also injured by white weapons in Hurghada.
Egypt´s tourism sector, one of the most important pillars of the economy, is partially recovering after it suffered a major blow after the overthrow of the Islamic state in 2015 by a Russian plane after taking off from the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing 224 people on board.
The country has recovered some of its tourist traffic in the past few months.
The arrival of 8.2 million tourists to Egypt in 2017, but this figure is still very far from the 14.7 million tourists who visited the country in 2010.
Egypt has been subjected to several attacks carried out by extremist Islamic groups targeted especially the security forces and the Coptic minority.
Since the military overthrew President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, violent confrontations have been taking place between security forces and extremist Islamic groups in the country that have caused hundreds of deaths on both sides, especially in north and central Sinai.
On February 9, the Egyptian army, in cooperation with the police, launched a comprehensive military operation on the Egyptian Peninsula under the name "Sinai 2018" to combat terrorism, which has so far killed more than 500 jihadis and over 30 military, according to the army.
