Egypt arrests three workers at Red Sea hotel including head chef for ‘endangering guests’ lives’ after 50 foreign tourists were hospitalised with food poisoning following dinner
- Three workers at a hotel in Hurghada were arrested after 50 tourists hospitalised
- Tourists included 14 Estonians, 29 Russians and four from the Czech Republic
- Authorities have ordered the closure of the hotel and inspection was carried out
Three hotel workers have been arrested in Egypt for ‘endangering guests’ lives’ after 50 foreign tourists were hospitalised with food poisoning.
They were admitted to hospital after they had dinner over the weekend in an unnamed hotel in the Red Sea beach resort city of Hurghada, which is popular with tourists for scuba diving.
Egypt’s chief prosecutor Hamada el-Sawy said in a statement that the workers, including the hotel’s head chef, face accusations of endangering the guests’ lives.
The workers denied the accusations.
The tourists include 14 Estonians, 29 Russians and four from the Czech Republic. Many have been discharged from hospital after their conditions improved, it said.
Three workers at a hotel in Hurghada, a beach resort on the Red Sea in Egypt (pictured), were arrested after 50 tourists were hospitalised with food poisoning over the weekend
Tourism authorities have ordered the closure of the hotel, suspended its director and revoked his work licence.
An inspection was conducted at the hotel’s headquarters, and samples were taken from the hotel’s food in the kitchen, freezers, processing places and various water sources. They are to be examined and a detailed report is to be prepared with the results.
Russia’s TASS news agency quoted the Russian consul general in Hurghada, Viktor Voropayev, as saying that the tourists have been accommodated at other hotels.
‘The health condition of all the patients is satisfactory, stable and not life-threatening,’ Mr Voropayev was quoted as saying.
Russia is a major source of foreign tourists visiting Egypt and in August, Russia allowed the resumption of flights between its territory and the Red Sea resorts for the first time since a 2015 plane crash (pictured, Russian tourists travel from Sheremetyevo to Sharm El-Sheikh)
The incident has come as Egypt is struggling to revive its vital tourism industry, which was badly hit by the turmoil that followed the 2011 uprising, and more recently by the coronavirus pandemic.
The government has kept looser virus-related restrictions in the Red Sea resorts of Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh to try to attract foreign visitors.
Russia is a major source of foreign tourists visiting Egypt and government efforts received a boost in August when Russia allowed the resumption of flights between its territory and the Red Sea resorts.
It was the first time air traffic was allowed since a bomb by the local so-called Islamic State affiliate brought down a Russian flight over the Sinai Peninsula in October 2015, killing all 224 people on board.