The day after 10 people were killed in a petrol-bomb and machinegun attack on a tourist bus in Cairo, Egyptian officials said the violence may have been the work of "a crazed madman".
So far nobody has claimed responsibility for the assault, although Islamic militants are widely suspected of involvement. But while security sources acknowledge this possibility, a statement by the ministry of the interior named two of the three attackers arrested in the aftermath of the carnage as Saber and Mr Mahmoud Abu el-Ela, who are brothers.
Saber, a failed pop star, has been confined to a mental institution since 1993, when he killed three foreigners as they ate dinner at a five-star Cairo hotel.
The statement said that Saber escaped from the institution more than a month ago and planned Thursday's attack to avenge an Israeli woman's poster campaign last June in which the Prophet Muhammad was portrayed as a pig. "We were sure of the presence of Jewish tourists by the museum at that time of day," he was quoted as telling the police. "We saw the Spring Tours bus and we thought that they were Jewish." Nine of the 10 dead were German.
Officials seized on the Abu elElas' identity in an attempt to play down the incident.
"We cannot attribute this to terrorist groups," the Minister of Tourism, Mr Mamdouh el-Beltagi, told reporters yesterday. "Tourism is not targeted and tourists are not targets. This is not a political or terrorist act, but a criminal one by a mentally deranged person and his brother."
But foreign diplomats in Cairo say the Abu el-Ela brothers are suspected of having links with the outlawed Gama'a el-Islamiya, which has been fighting to install its own version of an Islamic republic since 1992.
They, and many Egyptian commentators, point out that the attack, which took place in a heavily-guarded area beside a major tourist site, was meticulously planned and appeared to have sophisticated logistical support. Also, questions remain over the identity of the other two attackers, one of whom remains at large.
Even some of the government's staunchest supporters agree that the attack could only have been the work of professionals.
It was "a criminal act aimed, of course, at dealing a blow to the tourism movement and destroying the rising Egyptian economy," wrote Galal Dwaidar, editor-in-chief of the usually pro-government Al-Akhbar newspaper.
As Germany urged Egypt to hold a full investigation and warned Germans to avoid highrisk areas of Egypt, 18 German survivors of the attack returned to Frankfurt airport yesterday.
A police officer and a member of Egypt's main armed Islamic militant group were killed in separate incidents in southern Egypt yesterday, police said.
A police officer and a member of Egypt's main armed Islamic militant group were killed in separate incidents in southern Egypt yesterday, police said.