Nineteen people have been killed and 30 others were injured in an explosion resulting from a car crash in central Cairo, Egypt’s health ministry said on Monday.

There was no official statement indicating that the explosion was an attack.

The blast happened when a car driving against traffic on Cairo’s Nile corniche road collided with three other cars, the interior ministry said in a separate statement.

The explosion triggered a blaze that forced the partial evacuation of a nearby hospital – the National Cancer Institute, the health ministry said.

Shortly after the explosion, blazing cars could be seen in the roadway as passers-by struggled to help the injured.

Later in the morning, investigators scoured the scene amid a heavy police presence.

The hospital building showed apparent damage up to the third floor.

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Sources say that Egypt’s public prosecutor is investigating the incident.

The ministry said that the injured were taken to three different hospitals, where they were being treated for wounds and burns.

According to the country’s official statistics agency, in 2018, there were 8,000 car crashes in the country – crashes that  left more than 3,000 people dead and 12,000 injured.