Egyptian security sources said two assailants shoot the tourists on Thursday morning outside the Three Pyramids Hotel, which lies on a road leading to the ancient Giza pyramids in the southwest of Cairo.
The Interior ministry said no one was hurt in the incident at the Three Pyramids Hotel, but the attack damaged the hotel's facade and also a bus parked in front of the building.
According to a ministry statement, the shooter was part of a group of about 15 people who threw flares at the hotel's security post. A suspect was arrested and police were still searching for the rest of the group, the statement said. It did not identify the arrested suspect.
The motive for the attack was unclear and no one immediately claimed responsibility for it. However, a witness at the scene indicated the attack was more organized than the ministry described and that deadly weapons were used.
"The first thing they fired was flares, and then they started firing at the bus. Later they started firing birdshot at the hotel and tried to throw Molotov cocktails at the bus," said Jaber Jabarin, an Arab Israeli who was staying at the hotel and witnessed the attack.
After throwing Molotov cocktails, Jabarin said the attackers "started firing at the hotel with live bullets." He described heavy, continuous gunfire.
His account and the ministry's statement could not be immediately reconciled, AP reports.