CAIRO: Egyptian police said on Monday they have unearthed an extremist trail behind last week™s bombing in a busy Cairo bazaar that killed three foreigners, identifying the attacker as a teenage Muslim student. The bomber who blew himself up in the attack was identified as an 18-year-old Muslim, the interior ministry said, after DNA tests by police. It named him as Hassan Rafaat Hassan, an engineering student from Zagazig, northeast of Cairo.

The blast, the first attack in the capital for seven years, killed two French nationals and an American.

According to initial findings, a homemade bomb made up of TNT and nails exploded last Thursday as Hassan tried to plant it in an alleyway of ancient quarter of Cairo, near the famed Khan el-Khalili souk popular with tourists. The interior ministry said there was still “no information on whether or not the perpetrator was connected to others” but said he had recently embraced “extremist ideas” which resulted in problems with his family. Jaw fragments from the bomber™s body were flung up on to a balcony by the force of the blast and his right arm was found some 20 metres away. Police said three unnamed suspects “with Islamic leanings and motivations” had been arrested and appeared before an investigating magistrate on suspicion of helping to prepare the attack.

The group do not belong to any known Islamic organisation, said a police source, declining to be named. “The four individuals do not figure on any list of terrorists.” Prosecutors have described the attack as an “isolated act”, indicating they believe the suspects were not working in concert with an extremist network like al-Qaeda.

The blast was widely condemned and revived old fears of a fresh wave of terror attacks in Egypt, whose economy is heavily reliant on tourism.

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