UPDATE 3 - 10 killed in Cairo church attack: Egypt officials

UPDATES DEATH TOLL, ADDS REPORT OF SECOND ATTACK

By Hussein al-Qabani

CAIRO (AA) - Ten people were killed on Friday, including seven Coptic Christians, in an armed attack on a church south of capital Cairo, according to Egyptian officials.

In a statement, Egypt’s Health Ministry said 10 people -- including one attacker -- had been killed in an “armed terrorist attack” on the church of Mar Mina in Cairo’s southern Helwan district.

Five other people had been injured, the ministry added, at least two of whom were in critical condition.

“Security forces managed to kill one of the culprits in an exchange of fire and are now pursuing a second attacker," the official Egyptian News Agency quoted an unnamed security source as saying.

Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church, meanwhile, confirmed the attack in its own statement, going on to assert that a separate attack in the same district had targeted a Christian-owned shop.

According to church spokesman Paul Halim, at least two people were killed in the latter incident.

The Interior Ministry, for its part, has yet to officially comment on the church attack, which occurred shortly after the army announced the death of six soldiers and three gunmen in separate armed confrontations in the Sinai Peninsula and the Beni Sueif province.

In April, a deadly attack on two churches in northern Egypt left 45 people dead. The Daesh terrorist group later claimed responsibility for the attack, which coincided with the Christian Palm Sunday holiday.