Egypt’s state prosecutor killed in bomb attack

Egypt's state prosecutor Hisham Barakat has been killed in an apparent bomb attack on his car in Cairo.

Egyptian Justice Minister Ahmed al-Zind told the AFP news agency that Barakat had died of his injuries in hospital.

The attack involved a car bomb or an explosive device placed under a parked car near Mr Barakat's convoy, bomb squad chief Gen Mohamed Gamal said.

Three other people, including two of Barakat's bodyguards, were injured in the attack in the Cairo suburb of Heliopolis, reportedly outside Cairo’s military college.

The explosion sent black smoke rising over the neighbourhood and set fire to nearby trees. Images from the scene showed several damaged vehicles and bloodstains on the streets.

Barakat was appointed prosecutor-general by Egypt’s then interim-President Adly Mansour in July 2013, soon after the military overthrew the country’s first democratically elected President Mohammed Morsi. He set about freezing the assets of 15 prominent members of the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and ordered the arrest of its leader Mohamed Badie on charges of inciting violence outside the Republican Guard headquarters where 51 people were killed.

Morsi and hundreds of his supporters have since been sentenced to death in mass trials that have been condemned by human rights groups.

The Egyptian affiliate of the Islamic State militant group recently called for attacks on the judiciary, following the hanging of six Islamic militants. Earlier in the same month, three judges were shot dead in the northern Sinai city of al-Arish.