Cairo bus driver kills 6 in gun rampage

CAIRO // A disgruntled employee of an Egyptian construction company today opened fire on his colleagues, killing six and wounding 16, before surrendering, police and company officials said. According to police, the gunman, a driver, pulled over the company bus in western Cairo, took out an assault rifle and showered his passengers with bullets. The Arab Contractors company identified the assailant as Mahmoud Sweilam, 53, in a statement issued after the attack. It said he had hidden his weapon under the bus seat then turned himself in after the shooting, which took place just 300 metres from company premises.

Effat Abdullah, the company spokesman, said that Mr Sweilam had been at the company, one of the largest construction companies in Egypt, for 20 years, but declined to comment on a possible motive for the attack. According to the security official, the gunman appeared to have suffered severe depression after he was transferred to a new position. The incident was a rare case of workplace violence in Egypt, which experienced some terrorist attacks in the 1990s as well as occasional inter-family vendettas in the impoverished south.

* AP