Egypt's prosecutor general Hisham Barakat has died from the injuries he suffered in a bomb attack against his convoy in Cairo on Monday, official daily Al-Ahram said, citing medical sources.
Barakat went straight into emergency surgery at Al-Nozha hospital Cairo's Heliopolis suburb after sustaining ruptures to his nose and left shoulder and bleeding in his lungs and stomach, health ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel-Ghaffar said, quoted by Al-Ahram Online.
It was the first successful assassination attempt against a state official since the heightened violence in Egypt following the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 - when Barakat was appointed state prosecutor.
Nine people, including two drivers, one civilian and five members of the security forces, were injured in the attack on Barakat's convoy near the military academy in Heliopolis, Abdel-Ghaffar said.
Egypt's president Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi ordered the attackers to be caught and security to be boosted following the attack during a meeting with the country's interior minister Magdy Abdel-Ghaffar.
The bombing came after the Islamic State extremist group's affiliate in Egypt called for attacks on the judiciary following the hanging of six alleged militants.
Islamist militants, who have primarily targeted security forces since the removal of Morsi, have also attacked several judges.
IS-affiliated jihadists Sinai Province, previously known as Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, on Monday released a video showing their attack on a minbus which killed three judges and the driver in volatile North Sinai's Al-Arish, on 16 May.
Supporters of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood accuse Egypt's judiciary of issuing politicised sentences, including against the group's supreme guide Mohamed Badie and former president Mohamed Morsi.
Morsi and Badie were among dozens of the now banned group's members who have been sentenced to death during the past year.
