CAIRO, Sept 12: An Egyptian wedding feast took a tragic turn on Saturday when the bodyguard of one of the guests, a senator, accidentally killed him with a celebratory burst of gunfire and then committed suicide on realizing what he had done, police said.

Mohammed Abu Okail, a member of Egypt's Consultative Council, or senate, had come to the wedding in the village of Abis, 190 kilometres north of Cairo. When the party was in full swing, bodyguard Ali Suleiman began to let off a traditional volley of gunfire, killing Abu Okail in the process.

Realizing what he had done, he let out a hysterical cry of grief and shot himself in the head. Celebratory gunfire is common throughout the Arab world, and dozens of people are killed in Egypt every year by stray bullets. -AFP