REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, CAIRO -- A massive blast on Wednesday evening has rocked the area surrounding a military prosecution office and a police station in Arish city of Egypt's restive North Sinai province, state-run Al-Ahram news website reported.

Eyewitnesses said that ambulances have hurried to the scene and that fire exchange is still going on between security men and unidentified militants.

Meanwhile, a security source told Xinhua that a police recruit and a civilian were killed and six policemen were injured in the blast that targeted a police armored vehicle while moving in Arish city.

"The explosion has been massive and the injured recruits have been taken to the military hospital in Arish," the source added.

Egypt has been suffering a surge of militant attacks that killed hundreds of police and military men since the ouster of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in 2013 by the army in response to mass protests against his rule.

The crackdown on Morsi's supporters then left more than 1,000 dead and thousands more arrested.

Last week, at least two policemen were killed and another 16 wounded in an explosion also in Arish, according to a statement from the Interior Ministry.

Most of the attacks have been claimed by Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis militant group, which has changed its name to "Sinai State" and declared loyalty to the Islamic State (IS) regional militant group.

The armed forces and police have recently launched a wide-scale security campaign to uproot the militants' hideouts in Sinai, saying they had killed over 500 militants and arrested dozens of others.

The security campaign is part of the country's "war against terrorism" declared by then-military chief and now President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi following the removal of Morsi.

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