Twin bomb attack near Egypt's presidential palace kills police colonel

An Egyptian police colonel was killed and six people wounded when two bombs exploded near the main Cairo presidential palace, police said, days after Islamists warned they had planted explosives there.

The attack came almost a year to the day when the military toppled Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, unleashing an extensive crackdown on his supporters and setting off a deadly militant campaign.

It was not immediately clear if President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former army chief who led Morsi's ouster, was at the palace at the time of the twin bombings.

Police officials said a first bomb went off wounding three street cleaners while the second exploded killing the colonel and wounding three policemen as bomb disposal experts were trying to defuse it.