Downer urges Australians not to travel in Middle East
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has warned Australians against travel in the Middle East after the attack on the tour group in Jordan.
A British citizen was killed in the attack and five people were wounding, including Ashleigh Blair, of Harcourt near Bendigo in Victoria.
Mr Downer says there is a very high risk of terrorist attacks in the region.
He say he would discourage his own children from travelling in the Middle East and other parents should do the same.
"Some countries are safer than others, some parts of some countries are safer than others, but generally my advice to people is if you're going to, particularly your own children, your loved ones, when you think so passionately about them you advise them to keep to places which are safe," he said.
Meanwhile, the mother of a central Victorian women shot during the attack says she cannot wait for her daughter to return home.
Twenty-two-year-old Ashleigh Blair received a flesh wound to the hip in the shooting.
Kerryn Blair says her daughter has been travelling for the past couple of months since her work visa in London expired.
Mrs Blair says she thought Jordan was one of the safer countries in the region.
"I was more concerned about Syria - Jordan I didn't like the area at all, but she's left Turkey the day the bombings started there and I didn't think I'd ever say I was glad she was in Syria but I did, and here we go to the next country that I thought might have been one of the quieter ones and this is what's happened," she said.
Mrs Blair says she is hoping her daughter returns to Australia soon.
"She was going back to London for a couple of weeks and then she was to do a three-week tour of Morocco and then I think things were up in the air," she said.
"She wasn't sure what she was doing after that - I'd love her to come home but whether she does or not that remains to be seen."
