News Digest

Six policemen hurt as massive car bomb explodes in Egyptian capital

A powerful car bomb exploded early Thursday near a national security building in a popular residential neighborhood in Cairo, wounding at least six police officers and blowing the facades off nearby buildings. The blast demolished a wall in front of the government building and smashed its structure, leaving gaping holes exposing its offices. For blocks around the blast site in the popular Shubra el-Kheima neighborhood, glass from blown-out windows could be seen on the street. Ambulances and fire trucks rushed to the scene, flooded with water from broken pipes from what authorities said was a blast from high explosives. Wrecked cars stood around the building, as Kalashnikov-wielding security forces patrolled the streets and set up roadblocks to ward off hysterical residents.

A man suddenly stopped his car in front of the state security building, jumped out of it and fled on a motorbike that followed the car.

Egypt interior ministry statement

Inside his ruined clinic next door to the security building, plastic surgeon Gawad Mahoud lamented Egypt’s troubles since the military ousted the country’s first freely elected president, the Islamist Mohammed Morsi. "We were here painting the office, and then it went off. It was like an earthquake, it blew the doors off and smashed all the windows in,“ he said. "The explosion sounded professional, it wasn’t small time." Egypt has been wracked by a wave of attacks since president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi overthrew the divisive Morsi in 2013 and launched a major crackdown against his supporters and dissent in general. Last weekend, he decreed a far-reaching new anti-terror law which sets a sweeping definition for who can face a harsh set of punishments, including journalists who don’t toe the government line.