At least two policemen are dead after a bomb exploded near a checkpoint outside the foreign ministry headquarters in Cairo.
The blast came hours after President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former army chief who has battled militants since he overthrew the ruling Islamists last year, departed to New York on Sunday for the UN General Assembly where he is expected to discuss militancy in the region.
Two lieutenant colonels died and six people were wounded by the improvised bomb, Egypt's interior and health ministries said.
Police cordoned off the scene, in a crowded district in central Cairo along the Nile River, and scoured it with sniffer dogs for more bombs.
One of the officers, Mohamed Mahmud Abu Sarie, had testified in a court case on a prison break involving ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2011, when he was an opposition leader jailed by former strongman Hosni Mubarak, a security official said.
It was unclear whether Abu Sarie was targeted for his role.
Militants have killed scores of policemen since Egypt's military toppled Morsi in July 2013.
"It is a cowardly act and a political message but it won't hinder the progress of the Egyptian people," Cairo governor Galal Said told reporters near the scene of explosion.
Some passersby gathered around chanting "the people demand the execution of the Brotherhood," referring to the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood movement of Morsi.
The attack came days after another powerful roadside bomb killed 11 policemen in Sinai.
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