Two senior police officers were killed yesterday when a roadside bomb went off yesterday near a checkpoint close to the back gate of the Foreign Ministry building in the capital Cairo.

An Interior Ministry spokesman identified the two men as police lieutenant colonels, adding that several other police officers were wounded by the blast, including a major general and

Another lieutenant colonel.

Four nearby schools were evacuated as a precaution while bomb squad teams combed the area for more explosives.

The blast coincided

With the reopening of schools after the summer break, which routinely sees massive traffic congestion throughout the city.

In a separate incident, a military helicopter crashed while it was on a training mission in Fayoum province 65 miles south-west of Cairo, killing six people, said chief military spokesman Brigadier General Mohammed Samir.

The crash was caused by a technical malfunction and Defence Minister General Sedki Sobhi had ordered an investigation into the incident, he said.