Car bomb kills at least 20 in Cairo

CAIRO – A car packed with explosives being driven to carry out an attack collided with other vehicles and exploded in central Cairo outside Egypt’s main cancer hospital, killing at least 20 people, the Interior Ministry said Monday.

Authorities initially had said the deaths were caused by a multi-vehicle accident Sunday night on the busy Corniche boulevard along the Nile River, with no explanation of how it caused the explosion that damaged the hospital’s facade and even rooms inside.

But later Monday, the ministry acknowledged that a car bomb was involved. It accused a militant group known as Hasm, which has links to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, saying it was moving the car – stolen in the Nile Delta – to carry out an attack elsewhere. The ministry did not say what the intended target was.

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi called it a “terrorist incident” in a tweet, expressing condolences for the dead and vowed to “face and root out terrorism.”

The explosion injured 47 others, some of them with burns and broken bones, the Health Ministry said. It did not say if any hospital patients or staff were among the casualties. At least 78 patients were taken to other hospitals.

The police quickly cordoned off the area of the crash, as prosecutors began an investigation.

The hospital is close to Cairo’s Tahrir Square, which became known internationally as the scene of mass protests in the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak.