World Bulletin / News Desk

The death toll of a deadly bombing attack at a security headquarters in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura has risen to 15, the Health Ministry confirmed late on Tuesday.

The ministry said the toll rose after two injured people succumbed to their wounds.

A powerful explosion rocked the Security Directorate in Mansoura in the early hours of the day.

According to the health ministry, a total of 44 victims are still receiving treatment in hospitals.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.

Morsi's supporters, opponents denounce Mansoura bombing

A deadly bombing in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura on Tuesday drew condemnations from supporters and opponents of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi alike.

"The Egyptian people must stand united to preserve our nation," Younis Makhioun, leader of Salafist Nour Party, the only Islamist party that backed Morsi's ouster, told Anadolu Agency.

He dismissed the bombing as the latest "in a series of plots that targets Egypt's unity."

"All sides should shoulder their responsibility and work to create an environment conducive for peace instead of violence," Makhioun stressed.

Many of the local residents were quick to point the finger at Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood.

"The people want the execution of the Brotherhood," some chanted during the funeral procession.

Others carried banners calling for sentencing the group's top leader Mohamed Badie to death.

Morsi critics also heaped the blame on the Brotherhood.

"The Brotherhood proves every day that they are a terrorist group with no sense for the value of the nation," said Hassan Shahin, a senior member of the protest group Tamarod, which spearheaded this summer's protests that led to Morsi's July 3 ouster by the military.

Maspero Youth Union, a coalition of Coptic activists, accused the Brotherhood of being behind the attack and urged authorities to designate the group as a terrorist group.

In a statement, the Union said attacks "bode ill with the Christmas celebrations around the corner."

Both the Union and Shahin, meanwhile, called for sacking Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim citing failure to restore security to the country.

Other parties that joined the June 30 protests against Morsi, including Strong Egypt, the Congress, and Dustour, separately decried the blast.

The latter two also hinted at a possible involvement of the Brotherhood.

The Muslim Brotherhood, for it part, had issued a statement earlier today to denounce the bombing.

"[The Brotherhood] considers this act a direct assault on the unity of the Egyptian people and demands an immediate inquiry so that the crime's perpetrators might be brought to justice," read the statement.

The pro-democracy National Alliance for the Defense of Legitimacy also condemned the attack, saying it "targeted innocent people and sought to undermine Egypt's security."

The alliance also slammed "pro-coup propaganda, which didn't wait for investigations and hastened to blame the incident on the Muslim Brotherhood."

Two Morsi allies, the Gamaa Islamiya and Wasat Party, also joined the chorus of condemnation, and called on authorities to promptly investigate the bombing and bring perpetrators to justice.

Amr Ali, a leader of the April 6 youth movement, said the bombing attack underlined the need for a political settlement to end Egypt's political crisis.

"Security solutions are useless," Ali wrote on his Facebook account. "The victims are always innocent Egyptians."

Egypt hints at 'exceptional' measures

Egypt said on Tuesday it could take "exceptional" measures to maintain security following a deadly bombing targeting a security headquarters in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura earlier today.

"We won't hesitate to take exceptional measures to protect our people," the Presidency said in a statement.

It went on to threaten "necessary measures" against "foreign powers" interfering in the country's affairs, giving no further details.

Egyptian Prime Minister Hazem al-Beblawi asserted on Tuesday that his government will "firmly" enforce a court ruling banning the Muslim Brotherhood.

"A court ruling has been issued to ban the Brotherhood and the state will enforce it very firmly," he told a press conference.

In September, the Court for Urgent Matters ordered the dissolution of the Muslim Brotherhood Society, the banning of the Muslim Brotherhood and all affiliated bodies, and the confiscation of all offices and funds.

Al-Beblawi, meanwhile, denounced a deadly bombing that struck the Security Directorate in the Nile Delta province of Mansoura in the early hours of Tuesday killing at least 15 people, mostly policemen.

"This was a terrorist act," he said.

Militants have mounted attacks against police and army buildings in several provinces, particularly in the Sinai Peninsula, which have killed and injured scores of security personnel.

Egypt has declared a three-day national mourning.