Egyptian police said yesterday they have arrested three suspects over the bombing of a famed Cairo bazaar that killed a French teenager and wounded 25 people, most of them tourists.

Sunday's attack was the first deadly violence against Westerners in Egypt since 2006 but as yet there has been no claim of responsibility.

The bomb blast ripped through a street lined with cafes and restaurants in Khan al-Khalili, a 1,500-year-old market that is one of the Egyptian capital's main tourist attractions.

"Three people there were arrested on the site as suspects after the attack," a police official said yesterday. "Others are being questioned as witnesses."

The 17-year-old French girl, who died in hospital from her injuries, was part of a tour group of 54 teenagers from the Paris region who had hoped to buy souvenirs before heading home yesterday.

The bomb wounded 17 of her fellow tourists, including one seriously, French and Egyptian officials said.

"There was a very powerful explosion. Then screams and blood. We all started running," said Romy Janiw, 28, one of the seven adults accompanying the teenagers. Egyptian deputy health minister Nasir Rasmi said the other wounded included a 37-year-old German, three Saudis and four Egyptians.

"Most of the injuries were small shrapnel wounds," he said.

Mohammed Ismail, who worked in a nearby cafe and was lightly wounded in the attack, said he was watching a football game in a cafe and had stepped out onto the street before the bomb exploded.

"I didn't see the bomb," he told AFP after leaving hospital. "The force of the blast threw me. All I could see was grey smoke. Then I fell unconscious."

A pool of congealing blood was visible on the marble entrance to the Hussein mosque, which is one of Egypt's oldest places of worship.

Witnesses said the force of the explosion shook surrounding buildings. "The building shook and the books fell off the shelf," said a woman who worked in a store that sold Korans. Medics wheeled the tourists who were released onto a bus parked outside the emergency room, waiting to take them to the Cairo airport. A girl quietly sobbed as a friend tried to comfort her. They were due to board a flight to Paris yesterday morning.