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'The sky was lit up, it was terrible'

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Egypt
Acts of terror

(CNN) -- The sky lit up right after midnight as three separate bombs exploded in the Egyptian Red Sea resort Sharm-el Sheikh, killing scores and wounding many more.

"At first I didn't even think, I didn't even think it was a bomb," a witness to one attack said. "But it was, the sky was lit up, it was terrible, terrible."

First, a suicide car bomb hit the Old Market; a second rammed the Ghazala Gardens Hotel.

The third bomb went off in a beachfront parking lot and shuttle stop about two miles from the Ghazala Gardens .

All exploded within minutes of each other, around 1:15 a.m., Egypt time.

At midmorning, the Old Market in Sharm el-Sheikh was littered with chunks of concrete and strands of wire, cracked signs and broken boards.

Cars lay blown up, their windshields smashed, their roofs and doors crumpled. Shattered glass spilled over steps and over the ground, inches deep in places.

"There's no humanity or values or feel of belonging in these acts," Egyptian Interior Minister Habib al-Adli said.

Saturday was Egypt's National Day, which commemorates the bloodless revolution that brought a group of army officers to power after deposing King Farouk.

"I just woke up because our house is made out of glass doors, and simply the glass started shaking really hard," said Ahmed Mansour, who lives in Sharm el-Sheikh.

Ghazala Gardens -- this luxurious four-star resort, an exotic playground of gardens and swimming pools -- looked like the scene of a wartime blitz. The hotel lobby and its roof collapsed. The rubble rendered the place unrecognizable. Police shifted through it, searching for bodies and any survivors.

The victims were mostly Egyptian, but they were also visitors staying there in the height of the height of the tourist season. They were Czech and Italian, Ukrainian, Russian and British, Saudi and Israeli Arab.

On Saturday some survivors lay in rows of white beds, bandaged and dazed. Earlier, men at one site carried body bags to emergency vehicles. Other bodies lay amid debris on bloody ground, covered by sheets or blankets.

Walid el-Mouhandes had been driving toward the Old Market -- a crowded mingling of shops and bazaars -- when the blasts occurred. When he arrived, he saw "all the people lying, cut to pieces" and "cars lined up next to each other burning..."

"It's another terrible terrorist atrocity," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said. "Their fight is ours, our fight is theirs."

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