Egypt's interior minister survived an assassination attempt today when a bomb blew up as his convoy drove through Cairo's Nasr City district, state media and security officials said.
Security sources said at least 10 people were injured, but the minister, who lives in Nasr City, just outside the city centre, was not hurt.
The driver of a car used in the attack died, a senior security official told the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper.
The minister, Mohamed Ibrahim, has been among those responsible for a violent crackdown on supporters of Mohammed Morsi, the Islamist president ousted two months ago by the army following mass protests against his rule.
Ibrahim said the attack was "not the end but the beginning" of a new wave of terrorism, but that the authorities would win out.
Ibrahim said this week that he had been informed of plans to kill him, and that "foreign elements" were involved. General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, head of the armed forces, had supplied him with an armoured car identical to the one he uses, he said.
The security sources said a bomb had exploded near his convoy. Initial reports suggested the device had been a car bomb but state TV later reported that it had been thrown from a building.
A Reuters reporter at the scene said witnesses had reported seeing a car explode while the minister's car was close by.
Ibrahim said the "despicable attempt" on his life had destroyed four of his bodyguards' vehicles. He said one police officer was in critical condition, and that another officer and a small child had lost their legs.
"Many of my guards were injured," he said, adding that investigations had shown the blast had been detonated remotely.
Armed security forces quickly sealed off the area, where blood and pieces of flesh were scattered on the ground. A number of cars were damaged and the windows of adjacent buildings smashed.
"I was standing by a kiosk when police officers came and told me to make way as the minister's convoy passed. I moved a few inches, then I heard a huge explosion sound," said local resident Mohamed Raafat
"I looked behind and I saw remains of dead bodies and was told that a car that was parking had exploded near the convoy."
The military-backed government that took over from Morsi has killed hundreds of supporters of his Muslim Brotherhood, which it accuses of inciting violence and committing terrorist acts, and arrested most of its top leaders. Around 100 members of the security forces have also been killed.
The Brotherhood denies the allegations and accuses the army of staging a coup and trying to return Egypt to the repressive era of former president Hosni Mubarak. It says it is committed to peaceful resistance.
Senior Muslim Brotherhood leader Amr Darrag condemned the attack, calling it "regrettable" in a statement issued later Thursday morning.
Egypt faced an Islamist insurgency in the 1990s, when bombing and shooting attacks destabilised the country and hurt tourism.
