Cairo: A bomb exploded Saturday in a hospital in southern Egypt minutes before government officials were to open it, causing no casualties, state television reported.
The crude bomb was hurled by an unknown person inside the hospital in the city of Qena, around 600 kilometres south of Cairo, police said. Health Minister Adel Al Adawi and Qena Governor Abdul Hamid Al Hajan co-opened the hospital as scheduled and toured it, said the broadcaster. Qena security chief Maj. Gen. Mohammad Kamal said the explosion was caused by a pipe packed with fireworks.
“The aim was to cause panic. No damage resulted.”
He added that the incident was in reaction to a crackdown launched by the city’s police on followers of Muslim Brotherhood to which the deposed president Mohammad Mursi belongs. The blast was the latest in a series of attacks seen in Egypt since the army toppled Mursi in July last year following enormous street protests against his troubled one-year rule.
Thousands of Mursi’s backers have been rounded up since his overthrow. The military-backed government has blamed the unrest on the Brotherhood and declared it a terrorist organisation. The group has repeatedly denied any tie to the violence, insisting its anti-military protests are peaceful.
