CAIRO
Two people were killed and nine others injured in a bomb blast in the Egyptian capital Cairo on Monday, the Health Ministry has said.
Ministry spokesman Hosssam Abdel-Ghaffar said that two people had succumbed to their wounds sustained in the blast in downtown Cairo.
Nine people were also injured in the bombing, which took place outside the office of Egypt's prosecutor-general, he added.
The prosecutor-general, meanwhile, ordered an investigation into the attack.
He said in a statement that the selection of the site of the explosion "aimed to deal a blow to the heart of Egypt's judicial system".
The blast occurred just outside the Higher Court of Justice where the office of the prosecutor-general is located.
Earlier in the day, a shadowy group calling itself "The Revolutionary Punishment" claimed responsibility for the attack.
The group said on Twitter that its members had planted an explosive charge that had targeted a police patrol outside the court building.
According to the group, the bombing left at least four policemen injured, including some that sustained critical injuries.
Nevertheless, the group returned to deny any links with the attack, noting that the account that declared its responsibility for the attack earlier was not its own.
Bombings have become commonplace in Egypt since Mohamed Morsi – Egypt's first democratically elected president – was ousted by the army in mid-2013.
While the government accuses Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group of carrying out the attacks, the Brotherhood denies the allegations, saying it is committed to purely peaceful activism.
www.aa.com.tr/en
