Officials: Disturbed man grabs police gun, wounds 3 in Cairo

CAIRO – A disturbed Egyptian man snatched a gun from a policeman in Cairo and opened fire at passers-by on Wednesday, wounding at least three people, security officials said.

The officials said the incident took place outside a busy bus station a few miles from the city’s central Tahrir Square, the symbol of the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

They described the attacker as a man with psychological problems and insisted there was no connection to any terror groups. The man was arrested, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

A video posted online shows a young man firing in the street, with voices heard in the footage, saying he is firing at the police.

Later, another video shared online showed the man on a stretcher in hospital being asked why he carried out the attack.

“I love the Caliphate,” he replies, a reference to the Islamic State group.

Egypt has battled Islamic militants for years in the Sinai Peninsula in an insurgency that has at times spilled over to the mainland, striking security forces, minority Christians and occasionally tourists. An all-out campaign by the military since early 2018 has mainly halted high-profile attacks by IS and other militant groups.