Four small explosions went off in subway stations and outside a court building in Cairo on Wednesday, wounding eight people and causing widespread panic among morning commuters, according to officials, Reuters reported.
Authorities quickly accused the Muslim Brotherhood of orchestrating the first attacks since the election of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, the former army chief who last year's ousted President Mohammed Morsi, according to Reuters.
Authorities said the Brotherhood is are conducting "desperate attempts" to disrupt the "prevailing state of stability," Reuters reported. El-Sissi led the military's ouster of Morsi on July 3 after millions demonstrated against the Islamist president.
The group, to which the ousted Morsi belonged, has denied involvement in any violence, but even some Islamists warn that young Brotherhood supporters could turn to attacks under pressure of a fierce crackdown on the group for nearly a year, according to Reuters.
Three of the blasts, caused by homemade explosive devices, went off in separate subway stations in central and northern Cairo, and the fourth was a bomb that had been planted under a car outside a courthouse in the upscale Heliopolis district, Interior Ministry spokesman Hani Abdel-Latif said, Reuters reported.
In one of the subway attacks, one of the injured was a man who carried the explosive in his backpack, Abdel-Latif said. In another, the bomb was hidden in a garbage can, according to Reuters.
Police quickly sealed off stations and used sniffer dogs to search for more explosives, Reuters reported. Abdel-Latif said that other bombs were found and defused outside the court building and in a fourth metro station.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, according to Reuters. Egypt has been hit by a wave of violence, mainly by militants based in the Sinai peninsula against security forces.
