17 dead, 32 injured in explosion near National Cancer Institute in Cairo

Seventeen people have died and 32 have been injured in an explosion outside Egypt’s National Cancer Institute in central Cairo, Egypt’s health ministry said early on Monday.

The Health Ministry said the affected places were being evacuated.

Local media reports quoted authorities as saying the fire was caused by an exploding gas tank inside the second floor of institute.

But Egypt’s Ministry of Interior later said in a statement that the explosion was caused by a car driving against traffic on Cairo’s corniche, colliding with three other cars.

Egypt’s public prosecutor is investigating the cause of the incident, a Reuters report said, adding that there was no official statement indicating that the explosion was an attack. 

A report by news site almasryalyoum.com said the car explosion, which happened in front of the Institute, shattered the school's main façade.News site almasryalyoum.com reported that several cars parked in front of the institute were burned, and patients, doctors and workers were evacuated from inside the building.

"Patients and their families lined the sidewalk in front of the Institute in light of the lack of ambulances to transport them to hospitals, prompting a number of residents of the area to transport the injured in their own cars," said the report. 

Traffic enforcers closed the streets leading to the blast site, it said.

A video posted on Twitter by the same news site showed firetrucks and ambulances all over the disaster area.