Egypt police detain illegal African migrants, kill smuggler

EL-ARISH, Egypt (AFP) — Egyptian authorities on Saturday swooped on a suspected people trafficking safe house detaining 30 African migrants, and in a seperate raid shot dead an Egyptian smuggler.

Police arrested the Africans in a safe house close to the Suez Canal suspected of preparing to sneak across the frontier into Israel, in the first raid of its kind in Egypt.

"Thirty illegal African immigrants were hiding in a people-trafficking house in the middle of the countryside, close to the town of Qantara, northwest of Ismaliya (Suez), waiting to cross the Suez Canal and cross the border between Egypt and Israel," a security official said.

"It is the first time that the authorities have arrested illegal immigrants in a house before being taken to the border by the traffickers," added the official, who requested anonymity.

The raid followed a tip-off and police discovered whole families of Eritrean, ...