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Some Bus Victims Shot Repeatedly Survivors Of Bus Attack In Egypt Say Killers Were Methodical

Associated Press

Some of those killed were hit by as many as six bullets. Those who survived say they saw gunmen shoot repeatedly at injured victims already writhing on the ground.

The gunmen who opened fire outside a Cairo hotel killed 18 elderly Greek pilgrims and injured 17, all of them traveling through Egypt and Israel to visit Christian holy sites in honor of Orthodox Easter.

The survivors who returned Friday described a calculated, cold-blooded slaughter. And at the main Athens morgue, stunned families wept as they identified the dead.

“She was working in Germany to make money so she could retire to Greece,” Kostas Velikoudis said of his 58-year-old sister, Despina. “She went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to pray for her family and for her eventual return home. She came back dead.”

Many of the survivors appeared dazed as their planes arrived in the northern Greek port city of Salonica and the capital, Athens.

In Salonica, local television showed one man identified only by his last name of Topalides break down when he learned that his wife and two 15-year-old children were on the chartered Olympic Airways jet.

“Thank God,” he cried, tears running down his cheeks. “They are alive.”

Three gunmen attacked the 88-member tour group from Greece as it was about to board a bus outside Europa Hotel, while a fourth man stood guard. They escaped in a white minivan.

Seventeen people were wounded in the attack, three seriously. One was an Egyptian parking attendant; the rest were Greek.

Medical officials said the victims’ wounds showed the methodical nature of the attack. “Some of the bodies have five or six bullet wounds in them, many from different types of weapons,” Athens coroner Emanouil Nonas said.

One survivor described the slaying of Greek Orthodox monk Nikos Patelis and his sister, a nun. “I saw them shoot down the priest and then finish him off,” said the man, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Ten of the injured tourists returned to Greece Friday. Others remained in Cairo because of the seriousness of their wounds.