Egypt's public prosecutor died from wounds sustained in a bomb attack on Monday that had targeted his convoy in Cairo, state news agency MENA said.
Judicial and medical sources also confirmed the report of Hisham Barakat's death to Reuters. Two bodyguards were also injured in the attack, which targeted the vehicle in the Cairo suburb of Heliopolis.
Monday's attack involved a car bomb or an explosive device placed under a parked car near Barakat's convoy, according to bomb squad chief Gen Mohamed Gamal.
The explosion sent black smoke rising over the neighborhood and set fire to nearby trees. Images from the scene showed several damaged vehicles and bloodstains on the streets.
A group calling itself the Popular Resistance in Giza claimed responsibility for the attack.
On Sunday, Islamic State’s affiliate in the Sinai Peninsula said it would carry out attacks against Egypt’s judiciary.
Barakat has been the most senior figure to have been targeted since a 2013 attempt on the life of the then-interior minister.
He had referred thousands of Egypt's Islamists to trial since the overthrow of the country's first freely-elected president, Mohamed Morsi, in 2013.
Hundreds have been sentenced to death or life imprisonment, as part of a crackdown on supporters of the banned Muslim Brotherhood.
Sporadic attacks on police and security personnel have claimed hundreds of lives since Morsi was ousted in a military coup in July 2013. Also, three judges were shot dead in Sinai on May 16, the day an Egyptian court sentenced Morsi to death.
