Three policemen killed in Cairo suicide bombing

Three policemen were killed in a suicide bombing near Cairo’s famed tourist market late on Monday night, in an attack that also wounded two other policemen and a woman, according to Egyptian officials.

The perpetrator of the attack at the Khan el-Khalili bazaar, identified by the Egyptian interior ministry as 37-year-old al-Hassan Abdullah, detonated his suicide vest after police chased him down an alleyway.

Abdullah, who has been referred to as a foreign national by Egyptian law enforcement officials, was being monitored by police as he was believed to have also planted a bomb outside a mosque last Friday, although this device was successfully defused.

Bomb-making materials and a third device were found in a later search of Abdullah's apartment, prompting police to evacuate the surrounding area until it was defused.

While attacks against the Coptic Christian population have been on the rise in recent years, particularly after the 2013 overthrow of divisive Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, it is uncommon for such incidents to take place in the centre of Egypt's capital.

Violence against the Christian minority are often claimed by groups associated with Islamic State, including armed groups in the Sinai Peninsula which are currently involved in direct conflict with Egyptian security forces.

While attacks on tourists are also rare, three Vietnamese tourists and their Egyptian guide were killed in December after a roadside bomb struck their tourist bus near the Pyramids of Giza, south of Cairo.

Tourism is vital to the Egyptian economy and the North-African nation has seen a sharp drop in visitor numbers since 2011's Arab-Spring inspired uprising, which ended the three decade tenure of former leader Hosni Mubarak.