Cairo: Two Egyptian policemen were killed on Wednesday after masked gunmen shot at them in a rare attack near the Pyramids west of the Egyptian capital, security sources said.
The assailants riding a motorbike sprayed the two policemen with bullets at a checkpoint on a road in the vicinity of the Pyramids, a security source said.
One policemen died immediately while his colleague died later of his injuries in hospital, the source added, asking not to be named because he was not authorized to talk media.
Both victims were from the tourism police, who are in charge of protecting areas in Egypt visited by foreign tourists.
Police launched a massive hunt for the assailants who had fled the scene, the source added.
The tourism industry, a key foreign currency earner for Egypt, has been hard hit by political turmoil that hit the country following the 2011 uprising.
Egypt has seen a surge in deadly assaults targeting security troops in Egypt since 2013 when the army deposed Islamist president Mohammad Mursi following enormous street protests against his one-year rule.
Authorities blamed the violence on Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood and listed it as a terrorist organization.
The Islamist group has repeatedly denied links to violence, saying it is committed to peaceful activism.
