Unknown assailants threw an improvised explosive device (IED) near the Beni Suef central security directorate in Upper Egypt on Thursday with no injuries or deaths reported, according to Al-Ahram’s Arabic news website.

Soon after the incident, an ambulance and explosive experts arrived on the scene along with head of Beni Suef’s criminal investigations unit, Zakareya Abu Zeina.   

Earlier in the day, masked men shot dead a policeman in Upper Egypt’s Fayoum governorate.

Attacks on police and army forces have been recurrent in Egypt with hundreds of personnel killed or injured, particularly in North Sinai where the military is battling a jihadist insurgency.