At least 20 dead and 47 injured in ‘terrorist’ blast outside hospital in Egypt’s capital

The blast struck around midnight, on a road running along the Nile river in an area outside Egypt’s National Cancer Institute

The country’s interior ministry had sought to quell suspicions that it was a terrorist incident, but later said the car involved contained explosives

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People extinguish a fire from the blast outside the National Cancer Institute in Cairo, Egypt. Photo: EPA

Published: 10:02pm, 5 Aug 2019Updated: 5:44am, 6 Aug 2019

Twenty people were killed and 47 injured when an explosion struck the area outside a cancer hospital in central Cairo, capital of Egypt.

The blast struck around midnight, on a road running along the Nile river in an area outside Egypt’s National Cancer Institute. Pictures of the scene published by Egypt’s largest newspaper Al-Ahram taken just after the incident showed two burnt-out cars, at least one completely blackened and dented from the force of the explosion.

“I was waiting to use a bathroom inside the hospital around 12.30am when I heard a big explosion,” said Nermat al-Awady, who had travelled to the cancer centre from Minya so her child could receive treatment.

Awady had intended to sleep outside the hospital with her child before queuing for treatment the following morning. “We ran to the main entrance of the hospital but it was on fire, so we left through another side door,” she said.

“I saw body parts and lots of blood,” she said, adding that she believed the fire had burned for an hour. “Inside the hospital, there was panic. Women and children were screaming and running. The hospital stairs are normally crammed with people, so it was hard to escape.”