Deadly firebomb attack on Cairo nightclub

CAIRO -- Egypt's government said 16 people were killed and three others wounded in a firebomb attack on a nightclub in Cairo.

The Interior Ministry confirmed the toll in the attack, which state media outlets said earlier involved three men on a motorcycle who threw Molotov cocktails into the club in the Agouza district early Friday and then fled.

State-run MENA TV said the fire was quickly extinguished and security authorities were investigating the attack.

Officials gave no initial assessment as to whether the attack was believed to be terrorism or a criminal act, but various Egyptian media said the three assailants were earlier denied entry to the club before returning on the motorcyle.

Egypt has been hit by a wave of terror attacks, focused primarily in the Sinai Peninsula, by Islamic extremist groups including the Egyptian branch of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

ISIS claimed to have smuggled a soda can bomb onto the Russian passenger jet that blew up in the air over Sinai at the end of September, prompting President Vladimir Putin to bolster his military campaign against the militants in Syria.