Makeshift firebomb thrown at Cairo synagogue

A makeshift explosive device was thrown at the main synagogue in downtown Cairo on Sunday morning. No one was hurt and no damage was caused to the building. Police said they were still looking for the suspect. According to Egyptian police, a man walked into the hotel opposite the synagogue and threw a suitcase from the window on the fourth floor, where the hotel reception was located. The suitcase caught fire, but the flames were swiftly put out.  Police said the device was made out of four jars of fuel, each connected to a glass bottle containing sulfuric acid. The suitcase also contained clothes, matches, a lighter and some cotton wool.

Security is normally tight around the Shaar Hashamayim Synagogue, which is located in a busy Cairo thoroughfare and protected by a gate and barriers on the pavement. A judicial source told the news agency AFP that a witness who was staying at the hotel had told the prosecutor investigating the attack that the man who threw the suitcase containing the explosive device out of the hotel window appeared to be in his 40s.

Cairo has seen similar bombings in recent years, including a 2009 blast in a bazaar that killed a French tourist and a firebomb against a Coptic church.