A car driving against traffic in Egypt’s capital city Cairo collided with three other vehicles on Sunday, triggering a blast outside Egypt’s main cancer hospital. The explosion killed 20 people in total and injured another 47, three of which are in critical condition according to a health ministry spokesman. Egypt is the location of many tourist attractions including the Pyramids, the Sphinx, the Valley of the Kings and Abu Simbel and the Nile. But what is happening in Egypt now and is it safe to travel there?
On Sunday, a car crash involving several vehicles in Cairo, Egypt caused an explosion.
The four cars involved in the incident caused a large blast outside the country’s National Cancer Institute according to the health ministry.
An investigation has been launched into the incident.
Around 78 cancer patients were evacuated from the cancer hospital after the crash and transferred to other facilities.
Cairo University said the fire had damaged the main gate of the facility and that wards and rooms were also affected by the explosion.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi sent condolences to the families of those killed in the “cowardly terrorist incident”.
In a tribute on his officially social media accounts he wrote: “I extend my deepest condolences to the Egyptian people and the families of the martyrs killed in the cowardly terrorist incident in the vicinity of the Kasr al-Aini area yesterday evening.”
Khaled Megahed, spokesman for the health ministry, said the wounded were suffering from “several burns of varying degrees”.
The prosecutor general has ordered an investigation into the causes of the crash, while the police said they suspected it was carried out by Hasm, an armed affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The explosion caused damage to the structure of the hospital, one witness told Reuters news agency.
Images showed investigators scouring the scene overnight while armed police stood guard.
Can you travel to Egypt?
On July 20, British Airways suspended flights to Cairo for seven days.
British Airways resumed flights to Cairo at the end of July after services to the Egyptian city were suspended for a week because of security concerns.
In a statement, the airline said it had “reviewed security arrangements” and would start conducting flights to the country once again.
No further detail was provided on the exact nature of the security issue.
German airline Lufthansa also cancelled flights to Cairo but resumed services just one day later.
British Airways currently runs one flight from Heathrow to Cairo and back again per day.
While there have been many terrorist attacks across many Middle Eastern countries in recent years, most countries are still safe to travel to and Egypt is no exception.
The UK government has said to avoid all travel to North Sinai.
The Government advises British nationals to avoid all but essential travel to much of Western Egypt including the border of Libya and Sudan, the Nile Valley and the Nile Delta and South Sinai.
However, eastern Egypt, west of the Sinai Peninsula, is deemed to be mostly safe.
The safe regions include Cairo, Malawi and Armant.
There is a very real threat of terrorism and related activities in the banned areas and near the borders where civilians have been kidnapped and a Russian passenger jet was downed in 2015.
However, an estimated 415,000 British nationals visited Egypt in 2018 – most of which were trouble free.