14 July, 2017
The Interior Ministry said that the militants sprayed the policemen's vehicle with bullets from machine guns as the security force was on the move to patrol the surroundings.
It said the initial investigation showed the man got into a hotel by swimming from a nearby beach and attacked the tourists, of various nationalities.
Five Egyptian policemen were killed Friday after gunmen ambushed them at a checkpoint in Giza province, south of the capital, police officials and the state-run MENA news agency said.
It was one of the bloodiest assaults on security forces in years.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
"A police officer who was near the site of the attack exchanged fire with the assailants forcing them to flee", the ministry statement said. The assailants stole the policemen's weapons and radios and tried to set fire to the bodies but fled upon seeing people gathering nearby, witnesses said.
Egypt's security forces are fighting an Islamist insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula and militants have carried out attacks in the past on the tourism industry. Egypt has been under a state of emergency since April after suicide bombers struck two churches north of Cairo, killing scores of Christians.
The attacks, mainly targeting police and military, increased after the ouster of Islamist ex-president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 by military following massive protests against his rule.
The Brotherhood won a series of elections in Egypt following the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
The deadly shooting - on the Muslim weekend in Egypt, when traffic is slower - heightened fears of what has become near-weekly attacks by suspected Islamic militants after a blitz attack left 23 troops dead in northern Sinai a week ago.
An Egyptian security official says the six foreign tourists stabbed in an attack in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada include three from Serbia, two from Ukraine and one from Poland. On the same day, Hasm claimed responsibility for shooting and killing a policeman as he was heading for Friday prayers.
In previous incidents, families of the suspects challenged authorities' accounts and accused them of illegal detentions, torture and executions.
Over the past few months, ISIL has focused its attacks on Egypt's Christian minority and carried out at least four deadly assaults that killed dozens, prompting President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi to declare a state of emergency in the country.