Egyptian authorities arrested one of the defendants in the Fairmont Nile City Hotel gang rape incident pending investigations into the crime that has stirred uproar on social media over the past two months.

Egypt's prosecution ordered on Wednesday the detention of Amir Zayed for four days pending investigations, a statement by the prosecution read.

Zayed was arrested on Tuesday as he attempted to flee the country, the statement added.

Seven defendants in the case left the country via Cairo International Airport in July, days after the alleged crime went viral on social media, according to a previous statement by the prosecution.

The whereabouts of the ninth defendant are yet unknown.

"The prosecution has taken measures to arrest all the defendants via Interpol and the investigation is ongoing," the statement stressed.

Three days earlier, a travel ban was issued for the defendants who were also put on watch lists to be interrogated.

The shocking incident has been under investigation by the Egyptian authorities since 4 August upon a complaint referred to the country's prosecutor-general about the offence.

The complaint was first sent to the National Council of Women (NCW) by a woman alleging she was raped by several people at the luxurious hotel six years back.

The victim and a number of witnesses were questioned by the prosecution, the prosecution revealed on 24 August.

The alleged sexual assault surfaced in July on different social media platforms since an anonymous Instagram account published posts accusing a group of young men of being involved in a gang rape following a party at the hotel.

The incident gained widespread attention on social media, spawning viral hashtags in Arabic and English, including “#Fairmont incident.”

The incident was dubbed by social media users as “the Fairmont incident.”

In statements to AFP in late July, the Fairmont Nile City Hotel administration said there is an ongoing internal investigation into the allegation.