CAIRO (Reuters) - Three people were killed in a car bomb blast on Wednesday in Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt’s state-run Nile Television said.

Another state news outlet, Al-Ahram, quoted Brigadier Mahmoud Shawki, a police officer, as saying those killed had been inside the car and were likely to have been on their way to carry out a “terrorist operation”.

Shawki said the car was ripped in two by the blast and that security forces were trying to identify the dead, Al-Ahram reported.

Egypt has seen a wave of protests and violence since the army ousted elected Islamist President Mohamed Mursi last year amid mass protests against his rule.

Supporters of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former army chief, see him as Egypt’s saviour who can end the political turmoil and bring prosperity to the country. But he is viewed by the Islamist opposition as the mastermind of a coup that ignited the worst internal strife in Egypt’s modern history.