Egypt's interior minister survives assassination attempt

Security officials said the attack in the Nasr City neighborhood appeared to be a bomb, but they offered differing accounts about whether it had been placed in a car or motorcycle and was detonated remotely or by attackers who died in the blast.

Gunfire could be heard after the explosion, which took place at about 10:30 a.m. near the minister's home, according to witness testimony supported by amateur video. Some witnesses said Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim's bodyguards fired in the air to disperse bystanders, while other security sources said his guards shot dead two attackers. A paramedic on the scene told reporters that he had seen body parts scattered across the boulevard, suggesting that attackers had died in the explosion.

Alaa Soliman, a 26-year-old commercial pilot, said the explosion -- which he initially thought was an air strike -- jarred him awake in his family's apartment a few dozen yards from the scene. He said he came out onto his balcony and saw an SUV engulfed in flames as the rest of the motorcade drove away.

Abdullah Nadi, a 21-year-old employee in a nearby tire shop, said that Ibrahim's bodyguards ran into his store after the explosion and took a crowbar to pry open the door of a white SUV that he said was carrying Ibrahim. The vehicle remained at the scene later, its front half sheared off, windshield missing, and one side pockmarked with apparent shrapnel holes.

Amateur video filmed after the blast showed a group of men running from the scene and waiting as another SUV pulls up. Bystanders can be heard identifying Ibrahim in the group. Gunfire can be heard, but some witnesses speculated that the sound was left-behind rounds of ammunition exploding inside a burning car belonging to Ibrahim's bodyguards. 

Morsi had been a high-ranking Muslim Brotherhood official until his election last year and enjoyed the support of the Brotherhood and several other prominent Islamist movements in Egypt, some of whom have used violence in the past. But after Morsi's fall, the Brotherhood declared its commitment to peaceful protest.

The Brotherhood, in a statement from London, condemned the attack and complained that the "junta military and its allies" had already started to blame the movement. The pro-Brotherhood Anti-Coup Alliance said it was against "any acts of violence, even if they are aimed at those who have committed crimes against the people," while Amr Darrag, a former minister in Morsi's government and Brotherhood member, suggested that the attack was a plot to "frame Islamist parties."

Al Jazeera and wire services