CAIRO: Details continued to emerge on Tuesday of the victims of the terrorist car-bomb attack outside the National Cancer Institute in Cairo on Sunday that killed at least 20 people and injured about 50. They include two girls, ages 4 and 11, and a young woman who told how her fiance was killed on the day they celebrated their engagement along with her father.
“The night of the incident was the night of my engagement to the one I wished to spend the rest of my life with, and being next to him made me the happiest person,” said Naema Tarek. “After our engagement party I headed to my home with my friends and family for a dinner that my mom had prepared.
“On the way home, three friends’ and family’s cars moved in front of us. When we arrived at the area in front of the Oncology Institute, something strange happened: The car that my brother and I were using was blown up while the other cars moved and suddenly the three vehicles exploded in front of my eyes, with my mother and my father and all my family inside. It was a shock I did not imagine on the day of my engagement.
“Where were my parents? I did not know what happened. Ambulances were transporting the dead and injured. As I went from one hospital to another in search of my father and family, we found some relatives, but my father was still among the missing.”
Eventually a representative from the police called Naema that her father’s body had been found in the Nile, close to the scene of the attack.
Also among the dead are a 4-year-old girl, and an 11-year-old girl who was burned and blown into the Nile by the force of the explosion. Investigators said that the remains of four victims have yet to be identified and DNA analysis will be required to do so.
Six of the injured, who were being treated at the Nasser Institute Hospital, told investigators that they traveling in minibuses after attending a wedding when, shortly after passing a car crash, they heard an explosion.
Investigators have established that a stolen vehicle packed with explosives was driven to the hospital and detonated. The investigation continues, but the Egyptian government has accused the Hasm movement, which is linked to the Islamic Brotherhood, of carrying out the attack.
A fundraising campaign has been launched in Egypt to repair the damage caused by the explosion to the Cancer Institute. Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed donated 50 million Egyptian pounds, and millions more has been pledged by businessmen and organizations.
