Cairo's Islamic Art Museum totally destroyed in bombing, minister says

Centuries-old glass and porcelain pieces were smashed to powder, a priceless wooden prayer niche was destroyed and manuscripts were soaked by water spewing from broken pipes after a car bombing wreaked havoc on Cairo's renowned Islamic Art Museum.

Experts scrambled to try to save thousands of priceless treasures as ceilings crumbled in the 19th century building, which had just undergone a multi-million-dollar renovation.

The explosions, which targeted police and the main security headquarters, shook the museum, located in the nearby old Cairo district of Bab el-Khalq, propelling steel and ceiling plaster onto its glass cases and wooden artefacts. An Al-Qaeda-inspired group - Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, or Partisans of Jerusalem - claimed responsibility.

Violence continued yesterday as the country marked the anniversary of the 2011 Arab spring uprising. Seven people were killed during anti-government marches while thousands rallied in support of the army-led authorities. Violence was also reported in the canal city of Suez.

Built in 1881, the Cairo Museum of Islamic Art is home to the world's richest collection of artefacts from all periods of Islamic history. It houses nearly 100,000 pieces representing different Islamic eras, 4,000 of them on display and the rest in storage.

"The museum was totally destroyed and needs to be rebuilt," Egypt's minister of antiquities, Mohammed Ibrahim, said.