Gunmen have killed at least nine people after opening fire at the entrance to a Coptic Christian church in Egypt this morning.
Two men went on the rampage outside Mar Mina church south of the capital Cairo before one of them was shot dead as he tried to storm the building.
The church was being guarded by police in the run-up to Orthodox Christmas celebrations next week.
A picture of the gunman’s corpse showed a bearded man wearing a bulky ammunition vest sprawled on a street.
The attack took place in the Helwan district on the capital’s southern outskirts and officials say they are hunting a second assailant who may have escaped.
At least nine people have been killed after a gunman opened fire at a Coptic Christian church in Egypt. The gunman was later shot dead and a picture of the corpse showed a bearded man wearing a bulky ammunition vest sprawled on a street
Cellphone footage posted on social media appeared to show a gunman barely conscious on the ground, as people restrained his arms and then handcuffed him
The attack took place in the Helwan district on the capital’s southern outskirts and officials say they are hunting a possible second gunman who may have escaped
Cellphone footage posted on social media appeared to show a gunman barely conscious on the ground, as people restrained his arms and then handcuffed him.
The Interior Ministry said two policemen had been killed in the attack on the Mar Mina church.
Cairo’s security chief headed for the scene, local media reported. Sirens were heard in central Cairo as the incident was first reported.
It is not yet clear who carried out the attack.
ISIS in Egypt has killed dozens of Christians in church bombings and shootings over the past year, and has threatened further attacks against the minority.
The Interior Ministry said two policemen had been killed in the attack on the Mar Mina church
ISIS had claimed a suicide bombing of a Cairo church in December 2016 followed by bombings of two churches north of the capital in April. Pictures show the exterior of the church
Egypt’s Coptic Christians make up about 10 per cent of the country’s 93 million people, and are the largest religious minority in the region.
ISIS had claimed a suicide bombing of a Cairo church in December 2016 followed by bombings of two churches north of the capital in April.
A month later, ISIS gunmen shot dead about 30 Christians south of Cairo as they travelled to a monastery.
The jihadists are believed to have also carried out a massacre of Muslim worshippers in Sinai last month, killing more than 300 in an attack on a mosque associated with the mystical Sufi strand of Islam which IS views as heretical.
Egypt imposed a state of emergency following the church attacks and shootings, and President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi demanded the army quell the jihadists with ‘brutal force’ following the mosque massacre.
One attacker was shot dead by security forces, the sources and the state-run news agency MENA reported. State television said a hunt was on for a second assailant
The two attackers opened fire at the entrance to the church of Mar Mina in Helwan district, which was being guarded by police in the run-up to Orthodox Christmas celebrations next week, security sources said
Islamist militants have claimed several attacks on Egypt’s large Christian minority in recent years, including two bomb attacks on Palm Sunday in April and a blast at Cairo’s largest Coptic cathedral last December that killed 28 people
The group has been waging a deadly insurgency based in the Sinai peninsula bordering Israel and the Gaza Strip that has killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers.
They have increasingly targeted civilians as attacks on the security forces have become more difficult.
The army has poured in thousands of troops backed with armour and jets in a bid to crush the Sinai-based jihadists, but attacks have continued.
The attack on the church came a day after six Egyptian soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing in the Sinai.
Last week, ISIS claimed responsibility for firing an antitank missile at a helicopter in a North Sinai airport as the defence and interior ministers were visiting.
The attack killed an aide to the defence minister and a helicopter pilot, but both ministers returned to Cairo unscathed.