Bodies of Mexico tourists killed in Egypt to be flown home

The bodies of eight Mexican tourists killed by mistake in an Egyptian air strike are to be flown home on Monday, Cairo airport sources said.

In Mexico City, the foreign minister said the bodies were likely to arrive home on Wednesday.

The tourists were killed along with four Egyptians on September 13 when they came under fire during a lunch break in Egypt's vast Western Desert while on their way to the Bahariya oasis.

Survivors have told Mexican diplomats that they came under fire from a plane and helicopters.

Egypt said the tourists had entered a restricted area and were "mistakenly" killed as security forces chased jihadists.

Airport sources, declining to be named, said the bodies would be repatriated later Monday, without giving more details.

Mexican Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz Massieu told Televisa TV that the bodies will probably be home by Wednesday.

"They will arrive this week. I don't have elements right now to say exactly (when), but it is very probable that they will arrive here on Wednesday," she told the network.

On Friday, Ruiz Massieu accompanied six tourists wounded in the attack back to Mexico City on the presidential plane after having flown to Cairo with relatives of victims to demand answers from the authorities.

Cairo has promised a full and "transparent" inquiry, although media in Egypt have been banned from publishing any details on the incident or the investigation.

Source: AFP