CAIRO, Oct 7 (AFP) - A blast ripped through the Hilton hotel in Egypt`s Red Sea resort of Taba on Thursday evening, with medical sources saying at least 100 people had been killed or wounded.
The blast, the reasons for which were not immediately clear, killed or wounded at least 100 people of different nationalities, an Egyptian hospital source said.
At least 23 Israelis were killed in the blast, Egyptian police said.
Israeli radio reported that the blast was likely an attack, with an Israeli foreign ministry saying it could have been a car bomb attack, although the Egyptian public TV had earlier said the blast was due to a gas leak.
"An explosion caused by gas took place at a Taba hotel," Al-Akhbar news channel said, without citing its sources.
"From the first information that we have received it could have been a car bomb attack," a senior Israeli foreign ministry official told AFP, requesting anonymity.
Shortly after the hotel blast, a second explosion was heard in the Sinai desert region of Nuaiba, between the Red Sea resorts of Taba and Sharm el-Sheikh, an Egyptian police source said.
"At least seven people have been brought to the emergency room, one of them seriously wounded," Coby Arad of Yosseftal hospital in Eilat, across the border in Israel, told public radio.
But he said the number of casualties was likely to rise.
"I am standing in front of the hotel. I heard a big explosion about 30 minutes ago that smashed all the windows. The power went off," an Israeli witness who gave his name as Eitan, told the radio.
Israeli intelligence services have been warning Israeli holidaymakers to keep out of the Sinai desert, where Taba is located. Israelis on Thursday night wound up the Jewish holidays of Sukkot.