CAIRO: Eight people were hurt in northern Cairo when homemade explosive devices blew up at four metro stations and a court house yesterday morning in the first attacks in Cairo since Abdel Fattah Al Sisi became president earlier this month.
Three people were slightly wounded when a device — described by officials as “primitive” — exploded at Shubra El-Kheyma station in a northern district of Greater Cairo during morning rush hour. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Shubra El Kheyma appeared to be operating normally shortly after the blast, with passengers filing onto trains and a blackened, tattered cloth believed to have contained the device the only visible sign of the incident. Police with dogs were inspecting the site.
Blasts were also reported at Ghamra, Hadaiq El Quba and Ezbet El-Nakhl stations, security sources said. Four people were hurt, they said, but their injuries were not life-threatening.
One person was hurt when a bomb attached to a car exploded near a Cairo court house, the sources said. Devices near the court house and at Hilmiyat El-Zeytoun station failed to explode, they said.
An Interior Ministry spokesman was quoted by the state news agency as blaming the Brotherhood for the attacks, calling them “desperate attempts ... to prove their presence in the street, especially in light of the current popular cohesion and state of stability which the country is witnessing.” The Brotherhood, which has repeatedly said it rejects violence, could not be immediately reached for comment.
Reuters
