Egypt: Deadly explosion hits Police Station, 13 dead, more than 150 injured

According to several reports, a powerful car bomb explosion has rocked a police headquarters in an Egyptian city north of Cairo, killing at least 13 people and injuring 150, officials said.

An interim government spokesman on Tuesday blamed the Muslim Brotherhood of orchestrating the attack in Mansoura and branded it a "terrorist organisation." The Brotherhood then quickly condemned the blast in an emailed statement. 

The explosion was so strong that parts of the gate surrounding the directorate are demolished.  Rescue teams are pulling people from under rubble.

"The Muslim Brotherhood considers this act as a direct attack on the unity of the Egyptian people and demands an enquiry forthwith so that the perpetrators of this crime may be  brought to justice," the statement from the Muslim Brotherhood said.

The Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi described the attack as a "terrorist incident," and vowed that the perpetrators "will not escape justice.''

"The incident we saw was the most heinous form of terrorism," Beblawi said.

The Middle East News Agency quoted Cabinet spokesman Sherif Shawki as saying that the Muslim Brotherhood showed its "ugly face as a terrorist organisation shedding blood and messing with Egypt's security."

Mohamed Ibrahim, Egypt's Interior Minister, said four people have been arrested after admitting their involvement to the incident.

"The attacks are an attempt to create a diversion and to terrorise people because of the referendum," he said. "But I want to reassure people that there is a plan in place, in cooperation with the armed forces to protect all of the election centers at the highest level."

Sections of the five storey building in the Nile Delta  city of Mansoura collapsed after the blast early on Tuesday and police evacuated surrounding buildings.

The bombing comes weeks before Egypt is to hold a referendum on a new constitution, billed by the army-backed government as the first step towards democracy since the military toppled former president Mohamed Morsi in July.

A reporter from Cairo, Peter Greste, who reports for Al Jazeera ,said it was not yet clear whether the bomb that targetted the Dakhalya Police Security Directorate in the capital of Dakhalya Governorate had been operated by a suicide bomber, or whether it was remotely detonated.

"Police also said that there was a second device,
.

The interior ministry said a police van with 15 policemen inside, that was parked beside the building, was destroyed. Four bodies were pulled out of the blazing vehicles and rescuers were searching for others inside.

Mohamed Fahmy, also Aljazeera reporter said five high-ranking police officers were among the dead and that that two other senior officers were critically injured.

"The explosion was so strong that parts of the gate surrounding the directorate are demolished," Fahmy said. "The injured are both police and civilians. Rescue teams are pulling people from under rubble."

Extracts from Aljazeera: