4 blasts hit Cairo subway stations, court, wound 3

Four near-simultaneous small explosions went off in subway stations and outside a court building in Cairo on Wednesday, wounding three people and causing widespread panic among morning commuters, officials said, in the first attacks since the election of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, the former army chief who last year's ouster of Islamist president, The Associated Press reported. 

Authorities quickly accused the Muslim Brotherhood of orchestrating the attacks, describing them as "desperate attempts" to disrupt the "prevailing state of stability." The group, to which the ousted President Mohammed Morsi belonged, has denied involvement in any violence. But even some Islamists warn that young Brotherhood supporters could turn to attacks under pressure of a fierce crackdown on the group for nearly a year.

Three of the blasts, caused by homemade explosive devices, went off in separate subway stations in central and northern Cairo, and the fourth was a bomb that had been planted under a car outside a courthouse in the upscale Heliopolis district, Interior Ministry spokesman Hani Abdel-Latif said. In one of the subway attacks, one of the injured was a man who carried the explosive in his backpack, Abdel-Latif said. In another, the bomb was hidden in a garbage can.

A total of three people were injured in the attacks, Abdel-Latif said.