Egypt: Policemen and inmates killed following gun battle in Tura prison

Cairo: Three Egyptian policemen were killed while foiling an attempt by four prisoners, sentenced to death, to escape from a jail complex near Cairo, security sources.

The four convicts were also killed in the gun battle that broke out Wednesday following their escape attempt in the Tura prison south of Cairo, they added.

The four inmates were convicted of terrorism charges, Egyptian media said today.

Interior Minister Mahmoud Tawfik visited the prison complex following the thwarted jailbreak and ordered an expanded investigation, private newspaper Al Watan said.

The four convicts were arrested in March 2014 on charges of setting up a militant group and mounting attacks on police.

Last July, Egypt’s top court upheld death sentences, earlier handed down to them by a lower court.