At Least Two Police Officers Die in Attack on Checkpoint in Northern Egypt

Unknown gunmen attacked checkpoint in the Menofia governorate in northern Egypt and killed two police officers, according to local media.

CAIRO (Sputnik) — At least two police officers were killed and five other people, including two civilians, were injured in an attack by unknown gunmen on a checkpoint in the Menofia governorate in northern Egypt, local media reported Sunday.

Five individuals in a small truck approached the checkpoint and opened fire at the people, the Egyptian Youm7 newspaper reported. The investigators found about 176 bullet casings at the scene, the daily added.

The prosecutor's office is carrying out an investigation into the attack, the media outlet noted.

Egypt is struggling with an insurgency of militants that has claimed lives of hundreds of people, notably in Northern Sinai since the army, led by President Abdel Fattah Sisi, overthrew then Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013. Police and security forces have repeatedly been the target of deadly attacks by Islamists in the area.