After British, Canadian embassy in Egypt closes

The Canadian Embassy in the Egyptian capital closed on Monday over unspecified security concerns, a day after the British Embassy also suspended its services over safety worries.

The two Western embassies, located next door to one another in the central Cairo district of Garden City, gave no further details on their closures. The nearby U.S. Embassy remained open.

However, three senior Egyptian security officials told The Associated Press that recent arrests of suspected militants revealed plans to target the embassies, abduct foreign nationals and assassinate public figures. They did not elaborate.

The Canadian Embassy announced its closure through a recorded message on its main telephone number on Monday.

Neither embassy said how long its closure would last.

A fourth Egyptian security official told the AP that the Canadians asked that all roads around their embassy be closed off and that they also requested more security. The official said authorities would increase security but that the roads could not be closed.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Egypt's official MENA news agency, citing an unnamed security official, said the British Embassy had also asked for more security around its grounds.

Egypt has been hit by series of militant attacks since last year's military ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

There was no statement by the government on the embassy closures.

AP