The Security Information Center of Egypt's Ministry of Interior said in a statement that two Austrians and a Swede had been injured while the attackers were trying to escape.

Armed men shot dead a soldier as well as a police officer while they were in their automobile in the Giza area, to the outskirts of Cairo, the state news agency said. Egypt's interior ministry on Friday released a statement saying that two perpetrators executed the attack, naming Mohammed Hassan Mohammed Mahfouz - a student born in 1994 and a resident of Giza - as one of the attackers.

"The three wounded tourists are suffering from knife wounds but their situation is under control for now", Egyptian tourism minister Hicham Zazou said. Security forces repelled the assault after killing one of the gunmen who was wearing a suicide bomb belt.

A security official said about 40 Arab Israelis were inside waiting to board a bus when that attack occurred. One attacker was reportedly killed by the police, while another was wounded.

No group has claimed responsibility yet. "They took knives and they tried to get Sammie here", he said, pointing to his chest.

The extremist group's Egypt affiliate is waging an insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula, and dealt a body blow to the country's tourism industry by claiming to have downed a Russian airliner in October, killing all the holidaymakers on board.

The news comes just a day after the Islamic State militant group took credit for an attack on Israeli tourists in Cairo in response to a call by the militant group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, to target Jews "everywhere".

Two suspected militants attacked the three at a hotel in Hurghada late Friday.

A spokesman for the UK Foreign Office said they were "urgently investigating" the reports from Hurghada to see if any UK nationals were involved.

Security forces are still combing the area for possible.

Egypt has witnessed a growing wave of anti-security attacks in revenge for the crackdown on Islamists after the army-led ouster of President Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

One was discharged and the other two were in a stable condition with minor injuries.

Analysts suggest that the jihadists attacks seek to harm the government by driving away foreign investment and tourism.