Fundamentalists in Egypt kill tourist

ASSIUT (Reuter) - Muslim militants waging a violent campaign against Egypt's government shot dead a Spanish boy and seriously wounded his father yesterday in the first major attack against tourists for months.

Police said two other Spanish tourists - one of them the boy's mother - and an Egyptian guide were injured in the attack when four gunmen opened fire on a bus taking people to see an ancient pharaonic temple in southern Egypt.

The shooting after a four-month lull comes before the opening of an important UN conference in Cairo on 5 September and could revive worries about safety for the heads of state and thousands of delegates expected to attend.

Police believe the militant Gama'a al-Islamiya (Islamic Group), which has been trying to hurt the government by damaging Egypt's lucrative tourist industry, was responsible for the attack. They said the gunmen struck at a traffic checkpoint outside Nag Hammadi, about 280 miles south of Cairo, and slipped away undetected through nearby fields.