Cairo, Egypt – At least 3 wounded and 16 people were killed during an attack with Molotov bombs that were thrown into a restaurant and nightclub called Al Sayad, located at the Aguza neighborhood in the center of Cairo.

Interior Ministry spokesman Abu Bakr Abdel-Karim said in a statement that the attack, which caused a huge fire, was an act of revenge by two young men whom the entry into the local was not allowed by the club’s security personnel at the door.

Nightclub-Cairo-bombing
Reportedly, 16 people were killed and at least 3 wounded after a firebombing in a nightclub in Cairo, Egypt. Credit: Business Insider

He specified that after two men were refused to enter to the local, they “went and drank alcohol somewhere else,” and then brought four other friends with them, arriving on three motorcycles about 6 a.m. while the employees were closing the club.

Al Sayad is a small place that is among one of the many locals that represent taboos because of the alcohol sales in a country where the Muslims predominate. This place was located in the lower part of the building number 86 of the Nil Street, which runs parallel to the Nile, it was a long narrow building, and because it had only one exit to the street, in which the Molotov cocktails hit, people who were inside, died suffocated.

Among the victims of the attack, there are eleven men and five women, says the official newspaper Al Ahram. Police authorities also suggest that all the dead were employees of the club and some clients. The bodies were subjected to DNA testing to be identified due to severe burns suffered that left them unrecognizable.

The authorities conducted a quick search of the suspects of the acts. They have already arrested two people, while four others remain at large.

All sources agree that the acts have no link with a terrorist attack. The district mayor Aguza Ahmed Abdel Rahim, also said that it is “a criminal event.”

Source: Al Ahram