Four hurt in failed Cairo bomb disposal near pyramids

Four people including two Egyptian policemen were wounded Friday in a failed attempt to dismantle a bomb outside a Cairo hotel near the pyramids, a security official said.

Two policemen and two hotel security guards were wounded as they tried to deactivate the explosive device found by security guards outside the Meridien hotel near the Giza pyramids, he said.

The blast left one of the policemen in critical condition.

Elsewhere in Egypt, four policemen were wounded in the North Sinai town of El-Arish in an explosion as they drove past in an armoured vehicle.

North Sinai, where security forces are fighting an Islamist insurgency, is a bastion of the Egyptian affiliate of the jihadist Islamic State [IS] group.

The insurgency has swelled since the army's ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in July 2013.

Militants loyal to IS have killed hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and policemen, mostly in North Sinai.

A government crackdown targeting Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood movement since 2013 has left hundreds dead and thousands jailed.

Hundreds more, including Morsi himself, have been sentenced to death after speedy trials.