Bomb attack; Egypt's state prosecutor wounded

Cairo

Egypt's state prosecutor was wounded when a powerful bomb hit his convoy in the capital on Monday, officials said, after jihadists urged attacks on the judiciary to punish a crackdown on Islamists.

The bomb destroyed several cars and blew out storefront windows in the upscale district of Heliopolis. At least five vehicles were completely gutted in the explosion.

There were specks of blood on the street.

The prosecutor Hisham Barakat was taken to hospital with a dislocated shoulder and a cut to his nose, a health ministry official told the state MENA news agency.

A doctor at the hospital told AFP he was also suffering "internal bleeding in the chest". At the hospital, a bruised bodyguard recounted to prosecutors how the explosion hit Barakat's convoy as it headed to his office.

"There was a massive blast all of a sudden," he said, in the presence of an AFP journalist. "There was glass flying everywhere. It was as if there was an earthquake."

Witnesses at the scene of the blast said one of the charred vehicles had belonged to prosecutor.

"I heard a loud explosion and ran to the site. Barakat's car was on fire," said one, Shaama Abdel Fattah.