A probable suicide bomb attack in a Cairo bazaar popular with tourists killed a French woman, a US citizen and the bomber yesterday.
The Egyptian Interior Ministry said 18 people were wounded in the attack. Early investigations showed it was probably carried out by an Egyptian man whose remains had yet to be identified.
"It resulted from the explosion of a charge prepared in a basic way containing gunpowder and nails," an official said.
The bomb went off in the el-Hussein area of medieval Cairo. The wounded included nine Egyptians, four Americans, three French, an Italian and a Turk, the Interior Ministry said.
The US Embassy in Cairo issued a statement warning US citizens to stay away from the area of the attack.
It said there was no independent information to suggest it was part of a wider campaign, but cautioned Americans to "avoid areas of Cairo where large numbers of tourists congregate."
There was no immediate indication of the motive for the attack, the latest in a series against tourists in Egypt, a close ally of the United States.