17 killed, 32 injured in Cairo road accident explosion
Seventeen people were killed and 32 injured in an explosion outside Egypt’s National Cancer Institute in central Cairo, Egypt’s health ministry said early Monday morning, according to the Reuters news agency.
Egypt’s interior ministry reportedly said in a statement that the explosion was caused by a car driving against traffic on Cairo’s corniche that collided with three other cars.
Egypt’s public prosecutor is investigating the cause of the incident, the report said, but there was no official statement indicating that the explosion was an attack.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to queries over whether any Israelis were injured in the incident.
Egypt has battled Islamic jihadists for years in the Sinai Peninsula in an insurgency that has occasionally spilled over to the mainland, hitting minority Christians or tourists.
Monday’s explosion comes as Egypt’s vital tourism industry is showing signs of recovery after years in the doldrums because of the political turmoil and violence that followed a 2011 uprising that toppled former leader Hosni Mubarak.
