An Egyptian police officer guarding Niger's embassy in Cairo was shot dead on Tuesday night outside the diplomatic mission by gunmen who then fled the scene, a police official said.

A second officer was wounded by the two armed men, who were on a motorcycle, according to the official. Niger's embassy is situated in southwest Cairo.

At least 25 people died in a fire that gutted an Egyptian furniture factory north of Cairo on Tuesday, a health ministry official said.

Twenty-two more workers suffered from burns and smoke inhalation in the blaze in the Al-Helw factory on the outskirts of the capital, health ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel Ghaffar said.

Egyptian police killed two alleged jihadists suspected of involvement in the recent bombing of the Italian consulate in Cairo in a raid Monday on an apartment in the capital, security officials said.

The two men were killed in a gunfight when a police team went to arrest them, the officials said.

A Croatian working for a French company has been kidnapped in Cairo, the Croatian foreign ministry said Friday.

The 31-year-old man, identified only by his initials T.S. was abducted by gunmen on Wednesday when traveling to work in a car, the ministry said in a statement.

A cargo ship collided with a boat on the Nile carrying people celebrating an engagement, leaving at least 18 dead, Egyptian police said Thursday as divers searched for missing passengers.

The captain of the cargo boat and his assistants were arrested following the accident late Wednesday in the Warraq district north of Cairo, the authorities said.

At least six people were killed on Friday in clashes between pro-Islamist protesters and Egyptian police in Cairo, the health ministry said.

Supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi had held small marches after the morning prayers for Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Close friends and family paid respects Sunday to cinema legend Omar Sharif, who will forever be remembered as the eponymous "Doctor Zhivago", at a solemn funeral in his native Egypt.

Sharif, 83, died on Friday of a heart attack in an upmarket Cairo clinic after a struggle with Alzheimer's disease.

The Islamic State group said it was behind a deadly car bomb attack on Italy's consulate in the Egyptian capital Saturday, and warned Muslims to stay away from such places.

Health ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel Ghaffar said the powerful early morning blast that shook central Cairo killed a civilian and wounded nine people, including policemen and passers-by.

A roadside bomb blast wounded 20 Egyptian policemen on Thursday as they traveled in a bus in northern Sinai where militants have launched deadly attacks against security forces, officials said.

The military is fighting an Islamist insurgency in North Sinai, which grew since the 2013 ouster of president Mohamed Morsi by then army chief and now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Two gunmen on a motorbike on Thursday shot dead an Egyptian traffic policeman in Fayoum, southwest of Cairo, police said.

The shooting comes a day after dozens were killed in North Sinai, including soldiers, in spectacular attacks waged by "the Sinai Province", the Egyptian affiliate of the Islamic State group.