Fake bomb detectors used in Sharm el-Sheikh

As Egyptian authorities continue to assure tourists trapped in Sharm el-Sheikh that all possible measures are being taken to ensure their safety, bomb detectors being used by some hotel staff have been exposed as fake, writes the Independent.

Security guards at hotels in the Red Sea resort have been seen using gadgets believed to be based on those sold around the world by jailed British conmen and women.

The sightings came as thousands of tourists continue to be stranded amid increased security measures following the Russian plane crash that killed all 224 people on board on 31 October.

The device is not totally unlike the machine that Egypt’s military said would be the “Complete Cure Device” that would cure both HIV/AIDS and the hepatitis C virus (HCV).

The military’s device was a contraption consisting of a grip handle connected to a long antenna-like probe and sometimes a box—originally made media headlines in February in 2014 when it was slammed for its tenuous grasp of the science surrounding both life-threatening diseases. (The presence of chronic hep C in Egypt is 10 percent, the highest in the world.) The machine’s makers claim it works by breaking apart pathogens in a person’s blood stream, although it is unclear how.

No one has yet seen any results of the “Complete Cure Device” and it was a long time since anyone heard the military talk about it.