Nine wounded in Sinai bomb attack

Seven police conscripts and two civilians were wounded on Wednesday in a bomb blast in the town of Al-Arish, the capital of Egypt's restive northern Sinai peninsula, security officials said.

A child was run over by a car in the aftermath of the attack, as panic erupted on the scene, the officials added.

Wednesday's attack targeted a police armoured vehicle in Al-Arish's centre, the officials said.

After the blast, gunfights erupted between the security forces and the assailants, who managed to escape, the officials added.

Security forces sealed off the area and launched a manhunt for the attackers.

Most of the attacks have been taking place in the north of the mainly desert Sinai Peninsula, but militants have extended their reach to Cairo and the Nile Delta, carrying out a series of high-profile attacks in the heart of the capital.

Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (Partisans of Jerusalem) group has claimed responsibility for many of these attacks.

A little-known militant group, Ajnad Misr (Soldiers of Egypt) has also claimed several attacks on police in Cairo.

The government says the militants have killed about 500 people, most of them security personnel.

Sinai has recently seen an unprecedented spike in militant attacks on security forces, leaving dozens of security personnel dead.

The Egyptian army is already engaged in a wide-ranging military operation in Sinai, launched last September with the stated aim of countering militant attacks.

The security situation in Sinai has deteriorated following the army's ouster of elected president Mohamed Morsi last July.