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File picture dated October 31, 2007: members of Egypt's small remaining Jewish community congregate in the Shaar Hashamayim Synagogue in Cairo, also known as Temple Ismailia or Adly Synagogue, to commemorate its centennial. A Molotov cocktail was thrown at the synagogue in the centre of the Egyptian capital on February 21, 2010, causing no casualties or damage, the official news agency MENA reported.
Photo: Samir Raafat in Cairo, AFP Copyright 2010
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CAIRO (AFP-EJP)--- An unidentified assailant threw a firebomb at a downtown Cairo synagogue on Sunday morning, causing no casualties or damage, security officials said.
The man tried to throw the improvised weapon at the Shaar Hashamayim synagogue in a busy Cairo street.
But it landed on the pavement opposite the synagogue causing a small fire, a security official told MENA.
The man had checked into a small hotel opposite the synagogue and hurled a bag containing the bomb from the fourth floor lobby before fleeing, the official said.
"There were no tour groups visiting the synagogue when the incident happened. There were no casualties or damage, " he said, adding that police were searching for the assailant.
A judicial source said a witness who was staying in the hotel told a prosecutor investigating the attack that the man appeared to be in his 40s.
Police guarding tourists sites went on alert across Egypt after the early morning attack, an official told AFP, as a hunt for the attacker was underway.
Security is generally tight around the synagogue, which is protected by a gate and barriers on the pavement.
The Shaar Hashamayim (Gate of Heaven) synagogue is the largest synagogue in Egypt – the only one that still conducts High Holy Day services. It was in built in 1899.
By 1940, the Egyptian Jewish community numbered approximately 80,000. Most of the Jews left when war broke out between Egypt and Israel upon the birth of the Jewish State, and more left with each subsequent war, until only a few dozen elderly members of the community have remained.
Police did not say whether they suspected the attack to be the work of a lone person or an organised group.
Last May, a small bomb placed in a car parked outside a Cairo Coptic church exploded, causing no casualties.
The attack came three months after alleged Islamist militants set off a rudimentary bomb in a Cairo bazaar frequented by tourists, killing a French teenage girl.
Police say the have arrested the Islamist group behind the attack, which is alleged to have ties with Al-Qaeda.
Egypt in 1979 became the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel. Jordan followed suit in 1994.