"This was by far the most deadly attack on tourists in Egypt ever. Gunmen opened fire without warning on a large group of holiday makers just outside the temple of Hachepsut, a major tourist attraction on the west bank of the Nile near Luxor. Dozens of tourists were gunned down, some reports said the attackers used knives to kill and mutilate some of the victims. There was a two hour gun battle as the assailants believed to be Islamic extremists tried to escape into nearby ravines pursued by security forces. Police said there was six of them and they were all killed. The authorities said that most of the tourists who died or were wounded in the attack were from Switzerland, Germany and Japan. The two Britains are also known to have died. Some of the wounded were flown to Cairo for treatment, several of them in critical condition. Police later said that leaflets left behind at the scene of the attack said it was carried out by the Gamaa't al Islamiya - that's the main underground extremist Muslim group. This was their most fatal blow, struck right at the heart of the tourist industry just as the main season was getting underway. The government had chosen to showcase Luxor as the country's most important tourist attraction. Just last month it gave its full backing to the production there of Verdi's opera, Aida, staged in front of the very temple where this massacre of tourists has now taken place. In September the government dismissed an attack in which nine German tourists were killed outside the museum in Cairo, as the work of a deranged man and his brother working alone - as indeed it turned out to be. The carnage at Luxor clearly carried out by a well organised underground group despite massive security in the area will not be so easy to write off. It's bound to have a major impact in deterring holiday makers from coming here and can only be seen as a disaster for the Egyptian government."