They said the male tourist, who suffered neck and chest wounds, was rushed to a nearby hospital and would later be airlifted for treatment in Cairo, some 700 miles (1,100 kilometers) to the north of Aswan.

The officials said the attacker used a cutter and attempted to slit the tourist's throat before he was restrained by passers-by.

The assailant, identified by police as Mohammed Tawfik Suleiman, was fired from his job as a teacher at an Islamic school in Aswan for "psychological illness," the officials said. They declined to speculate on the attacker's possible motive or give other details about his condition.

They said the victim was among a group of 10 foreign tourists visiting the city's Nubian Museum when the attack took place.

All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Since an Islamist insurgency based in southern Egypt was crushed in the 1990s, there have been few organized terrorist attacks in Egypt's Nile valley or in Cairo, but there have been several bombings over the years in Red Sea resorts.