At least 23 people were killed and dozens more injured after three near-simultaneous explosions rocked the Egyptian Sinai resort town of Dahab on Monday.

All but three of the dead are Egyptians. Foreign Affairs Canada said there are no immediate reports of Canadian casualties.

"Our personnel in Egypt are in contact with local authorities to determine whether Canadians have been affected by this incident. We offer our heartfelt condolences to Egypt and to all other countries affected by this tragedy. Our thoughts are with the victims and their families,'' Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said in a statement late Monday.

He added: "Although the details are still unfolding, this is clearly an act directed against innocent civilians. The perpetrators must be found and brought to justice.''

The terror attack hit at the height of the tourist season in the central part of the city housing hotels, shops, restaurants and bars.

Dr. Said Essa, who runs the Sinai Peninsula rescue squad, told The Associated Press at more than 150 were injured at the el-Khaleeg Hotel alone.

More than 20 ambulances and police cars rushed to the el-Masbat area of the city, police said.

"It happened in quick succession, the three of them, about 7:15 tonight just as most people were out looking for a restaurant to have dinner,'' said Tracy Kennedy, news director of CHUB Radio in Red Deer, Alta., who was in Dahab when the blasts occurred.

"The bombs struck at the heart of the pedestrian strip. It was right at a footbridge that we all crossed a few times today ... part of its railing blown right off. Another bomb struck outside a grocery market, glass storefront there shattered, spewing debris everywhere.''

Kennedy said as she got closer to the scene, she saw Egyptians stumbling from the site of the wreckage, crying in the arms of their friends.

"Egyptians here can't understand why it would happen here. Dahab is so quiet and a peaceful tourist town,'' she said.

President Hosni Mubarak called the blasts a "sinful terrorist action."

The explosions  happened on part of a five-day spring holiday in Egypt, when the streets would have been packed with tourists.

There have been a series of attacks in Egypt's Sinai peninsula over the past 18 months, including deadly bombings in the Egyptian resorts of Taba and Ras Shitan in October 2004.

Last July, at least 60 people were killed and more than 200 wounded when two car bombs and a suitcase ripped through hotels and shopping areas in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik.

In Israel, the country's rescue service said it had raised the alert level.

Israeli Channel 10 TV reported that Israel had closed the border crossing at Taba, preventing vehicles from entering Sinai.

Israel's ambassador in Cairo, Shalom Cohen, told the television station that there have been repeated warnings from the Israeli government against visiting the Sinai Desert, where Israelis have been targeted in the past.

"Unfortunately, the warnings came true," he said.

Dahab is located on the Gulf of Aqaba on the eastern side of the Sinai Peninsula and is about 100 kilometres south of Taba, near the border at the southern tip of Israel.