Police said one attacker detonated a bomb he was carrying and two other assailants died in a firefight close to the Karnak temple. 

A source at the interior ministry said no tourists were hurt.

A civilian was slightly wounded in the blast which took place at the tourist site's parking lot. Security forces immediately opened fire on two other attackers, an officer at the scene told AFP.

"Security forces in Luxor foiled a terrorist operation.. two terrorists killed and a third was wounded," the police said in a statement.

The police kept tourists at the world-famous temple inside the site during the operation, a senior official from the Antiquities Ministry told AFP.

Terrorist have claimed regular bomb attacks in Egypt since the army's ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 and a brutal crackdown on his supporters.

Tourists have been largely spared from attacks although a suicide bombing last year on a tour bus in the restive Sinai Peninsula, home of the local branch of the terrorist “Islamic State” group, killed three South Koreans and their Egyptian driver.