A bomb exploded at a hotel frequented by security personnel in North Sinai in the early hours of Friday, Ahram Arabic news website reported.

Explosives experts said the detonation resulted from a bomb placed at the back of the Sinai Sun Hotel in Al-Arish, according to state news agency MENA. The attack was earlier reported to be caused by a rocket-propelled grenade.

Ambulances rushed to the scene as thick smoke billowed out from the building, Ahram reported, but no injuries were reported

The windows of two of the hotel’s floors as well as that of adjacent buildings shattered in the blast. Eyewitnesses told Ahram the bomb had left a huge hole in the building.

Earlier in the day, a policeman was killed and another was injured in a similar attack on the same hotel. Most of the hotel guests are said to be security personnel.

The Sinai Peninsula, near Egypt's borders with Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip, has been plagued with almost daily attacks by militants since the army's ouster of Mohamed Morsi, the country's first freely elected president, on 3 July.