A suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into an Egyptian security checkpoint outside a police building in northern Sinai on Monday morning – killing at least 10 people and wounding 22, officials have said.
The attacker drove a white rubbish truck packed with explosives into the checkpoint before security forces shot dead the driver and safely detonated the bomb.
Footage released by the Egyptian Interior Ministry showed the driver slumped over the truck’s steering wheel after being shot.
The vehicle was stolen days earlier and had been modified with built in metal plates to enforce the truck.
The attack, on the Mediterranean coastal city of el-Arish, was followed by several small explosions as militants wearing black masks fired rocket-propelled grenades at troops guarding the checkpoint.
Nine of the dead are policemen and three floors of the police station were destroyed in the attack.
Their bodies have been pulled from the rubble and the wounded – including a number of civilians – have been taken to hospital.
The identity of the tenth victim is not known.
Separate reports said as many as 13 people had been killed and medical and security officials said the death toll was likely to rise.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but the finger of blame will undoubtedly be pointed at Isis, which is known to be an active terrorist group in the area.
Isis has used reinforced trucks as weapons in Syria and Iraq.
Sinai is a volatile region in the east of Egypt that has suffered an increasing number of attacks by militant groups.
Egyptian army troops and Apache helicopters have been deployed to the area, reports said.
A similar attack on a security checkpoint in northern Sinai last November claimed the lives of eight soldiers.
Isis is also believed to have brought down a plane that took off from the southern Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in 2015 after planting a bomb on board.
All 224 passengers and crew died when Metrojet flight 9268 crashed shortly after take-off.
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