The number of tourists visiting Egypt rose by 7.4 percent in October compared to the same month in 2014, according to the latest official figures.

Egypt welcomed 923,900 foreign tourists in April, compared to 860,000 in the same period of the previous year, state-owned statistics agency CAPMAS reported on Thursday.

Around 40 percent of visitors in April came from Eastern Europe, mainly Russia, while 34 percent were from Western Europe and 12 percent were from the Middle East.

Egypt's tourism sector, which took a blow following the 2011 uprising, has seen a relative recovery in the last year receiving 9.9 million tourists in 2014, up from 9.5 million in 2013.  

But an attack on one of Egypt's most popular ancient attractions in Luxor on Wednesday has stirred fears that the sector's recovery might have taken another blow.

Two people, who the interior ministry believe to have been the attackers, were killed "when a bomb one of them was carrying blew up", while another alleged assailant was injured when he was shot in the head, the ministry has stated.

Tourism used to be one of Egypt's main sources of foreign currency reserves, which stood at $19.56 billion in May.