Islamist gunmen kill eight policemen in Cairo attack

Police officers shot while travelling through Cairo suburb in minibus

Eight Egyptian police officers have been shot in Cairo (Getty Images)

Gunmen thought to be Islamist militants have killed eight policemen after shooting them as they travelled through a suburb of the Egyptian capital Cairo.

Egyptian state media said the police were inspecting security in the south Cairo neighbourhood of Helwan early on Sunday when four gunmen in a pick-up opened fire on their minibus.

Interior Minister Magdy Abdel-Ghaffar ordered an investigation into the latest attack, calling the eight "heroes of the police martyrs who sacrificed their lives to preserve the security of the homeland and the people."

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the killings.

Insurgents have carried out a wave of attacks, mainly targeting Egyptian security forces, since the military overthrow of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, the leader of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, in 2013. Mr Morsi came to power as Egypt’s first democratically elected president in July 2012 after the Arab Spring uprising which overthrew President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

Many Egyptians, however, saw Mr Morsi as more preoccupied with establishing political control than tackling economic and social problems.

On the first anniversary of his taking office, millions of Mr Morsi’s opponents took to the streets to demonstrate against him. Three days later, then military chief - and now president - Abdul Fattah al-Sisi overthrew Morsi.

The interim authorities subsequently launched a crackdown on Morsi's supporters, in which more than 1,400 people were killed and thousands detained. Since then, there have been a series of terrorist attacks, mainly concentrated in the Sinai Peninsula, where an Islamic State affiliate is now based.

In October 2015 224 people were killed when a jet operated by a Russian airline fell from the sky over the Sinai Peninsula after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh Airport. Isis has since claimed responsibility for the attack, and many countries’ security services have since concluded that a bomb must have been smuggled on board the aeroplane at Sharm el-Sheikh.

As well as operating in the Sinai Peninsula, militants have also struck the mainland, targeting security forces and planting bombs in Cairo and other cities.