Four deadly explosions rock Cairo

25 Jan AFP

Egypt's capital was hit with four bomb attacks, one of which ripped through police headquarters and killed four people, on the eve of the three-year anniversary of the revolution that toppled dictator Hosni Mubarak.

The massive explosion that struck Egyptian police headquarters in downtown Cairo early Friday was the deadliest bomb blast in Cairo since the Egyptian military arrested Islamist president Mohamed Morsi and banned his party from office.

Strips of the police headquarters’ façade were damaged in the blast, which also blew out the building's windows. The explosion was believed to be from a car bomb, according to the state new agency MENA.

In a separate, smaller attack, a home-made bomb exploded across the Nile River in Dokki, the state news agency said. One was killed and eight were wounded in the attack. A third bomb went off near a police station in Giza, the state news agency reported. No casualties were immediately reported. Later in the day, a fourth attack killed one person after officials said a bomb planted on a road hit a convoy of security forces, the Associated Press reported. The blast brings the toll from the series of explosions in Cairo to six. The blasts come a day before manyb Egyptians planned to celebrate the anniversary of the uprising against Mubarak, president of Egypt for three decades. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to protest against him in early 2011.