Egyptian Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim has survived an assassination attempt unhurt and vowed to go ahead with his "war on terrorism".
An explosion was set off as the minister was on his way in a motorcade from his house in Nasr City in eastern Cairo to the Interior Ministry building in central Cairo, the state-run Middle East News Agency quoted a security source as saying.
Twenty-one people, including 11 policemen, were injured, said health authorities.
Ibrahim appeared on state television shortly after the attack, condemning it as "cowardly."
He said the attack, the first of its kind in Egypt in years, marked a "new wave of terrorism."
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"The incident is a return to terrorism of the 1990s," he told the independent newspaper al-Masri al-Youm.
"I do not rule out the possible involvement of foreign sides with domestic elements to stir a kind of terrorism in Egypt," he said, without elaborating.
During the 1990s, Egypt saw a series of attacks against government officials and foreign tourists.
Those attacks were blamed on radical Islamists fighting the government of then-president Hosny Mubarak.
Thursday's explosion was caused by a bomb planted near Ibrahim's house and was detonated by a remote controller, according to the Interior Ministry.
Human remains were found on the scene, raising the possibility that the attack could have been carried out by a suicide bomber, said the ministry. State media had initially reported that the explosion had been caused by a car bomb.
TV footage showed several charred cars and stores damaged in the aftermath. No one has claimed responsibility.
