DUBAI, Aug 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) – The UAE has condemned the terrorist attack that took place on Monday in Cairo, which killed 20 people and injured 47 more.
Egypt said on Monday that an explosives-laden car belonging to a violent breakaway faction of the Muslim Brotherhood blew up outside a cancer hospital in central Cairo, in what was one of the deadliest terror incidents in years in the Egyptian capital.
Authorities said the blast and subsequent fire took place shortly before midnight on Sunday when the car veered into a one-way street and collided with oncoming traffic. The impact set off the explosives, igniting a large fire and causing significant damage to the hospital and nearby buildings, they said.
The victims are believed to include motorists, passengers and pedestrians.
In a statement issued on Monday, the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said: “This heinous act of terrorism is completely against all religious and humanitarian values and principles.”
The ministry expressed the UAE’s condolences to the families of the victims, while wishing quick recovery of those injured “as a result of this criminal act that aims to undermine Egypt’s security and stability”.
The ministry renewed the UAE’s firm position against terrorism, regardless of its sources and motives.
On Monday, Egypt’s Interior Ministry said in a statement that the car’s cargo of explosives was destined for use in a terrorist attack elsewhere. It did not say why the explosives went off prematurely or give a reason for the driver’s decision to drive against traffic on a one-way street.
A video clip posted by authorities and apparently taken by a security camera showed a grey sedan moving against oncoming traffic, with other cars swerving to avoid it. The clip ends with the blast and a large orange ball of fire.
The Interior Ministry, which oversees the police and security, said the explosives-laden car was reported stolen from the Nile Delta province of Menoufiya several months ago.
“Preliminary findings and information-gathering showed that the ‘Hasm’ movement that belongs to the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood is behind the rigging of the vehicle as a prelude to carrying out a terrorist attack by one of its members,” said the ministry.
President Abdel-Fattah El-Sissi offered his condolences to the families of the victims of the “terrorist and cowardly” attack in a Facebook post. He also wished the injured a speedy recovery and reiterated his government’s resolve to “uproot” terrorism.
A general-turned-president, El-Sissi led the military overthrow in 2013 of Mohammed Morsi, an Islamist president who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood and whose one year in office proved divisive. Mr Morsi’s ouster took place amid mass protests against his rule. El-Sissi was elected president a year later and has since overseen a crackdown designed to dismantle the Brotherhood. Hasm, the group’s breakaway faction, took up arms against the government shortly after Mr Morsi’s ouster and is blamed by authorities for a string of terrorist attacks.
The health ministry said 20 people were killed and 47 injured in the blast and subsequent fire. The cancer hospital said two of its security guards were among those killed, but that no member of its staff or patients were among the victims.
The hospital, whose official name is the National Cancer Institute, has three buildings overlooking a narrow stretch of the Nile that runs by the eastern shore of the residential river island of Manial Al Rhoda. The main building, a seven-storey structure that houses patients and operating theatres, was violently shaken by the explosion, shattering windows, incapacitating lifts and damaging equipment and furniture, according to witnesses and a doctor who works there. The facade of the building also suffered considerable damage.
Images posted online in the immediate aftermath of the incident bore all the hallmarks of a major explosion, with bodies lying motionless on the ground, cars ablaze and women and men screaming in horror. Witnesses spoke of bodies caught in flames, flying glass and passers by ferrying the injured to ambulances.
“I was sleeping at home when the blast shook my building and glass flew everywhere,” said one witness who lives about 200 meters away from the site of the blast. The explosion was clearly heard throughout the entire neighborhood and across the river in the densely populated island of Manial Al Rhoda.
Other images showed mounds of debris at the hospital’s reception area and mangled and burnt cars in the street outside. Images taken from across the river shortly after the collision showed a large raging fire with flames shooting up into the night sky. Other images showed patients, including children, walking away from the hospital after the blast.
The doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said all patients – about 50 in total – were moved to nearby hospitals, including those who had been in the intensive care unit. The hospital remained shut on Monday as experts surveyed the building to assess the structural damage caused by the blast and hospital officials were inspecting equipment to see if they still worked, the doctor and the hospital said.
The state-run hospital treats cancer patients from across the country. It is one of several educational hospitals associated with Cairo University’s medical school. There is often a small crowd outside its main entrance, waiting for word on the condition of relatives and loved ones being treated there.
The facility is located in a busy part of the city with an intricate network of one-way roads and bridges that could be confusing for motorists not familiar with the area. The Nile-side road outside the hospital is a key passageway that runs from the heart of the city all the way to the leafy suburb of Maadi and the industrial area of Helwan farther to the south. The late hour at which the blast occurred – about 11.30pm – meant that traffic policemen normally stationed at intersections had gone and some motorists may have been speeding.
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