Egypt hunts for killers in church wedding attack

CAIRO: Police were hunting Monday for those behind a shooting spree at a church wedding that killed four people, in the first attack targeting Christians in Cairo since the ouster of Egypt's president.

An eight-year-old girl was among those shot dead at the Church of the Virgin in Cairo's working class neighbourhood of Al-Warrak, while 17 others were wounded in the late Sunday attack, officials said.

"There were two men on a motorbike and one of them opened fire," as a crowd emerged from a wedding service, the interior ministry said.

Security forces were Monday deployed outside the church, whose walls were pockmarked with bullets. Women dressed in black gathered at the entrance to the church to mourn the dead, a reporter said.

One worshipper Ayman Moussa told there had been no security at the church since June, despite several attacks against Copts around the country in the wake of president Mohamed Morsi's July 3 ouster by the army.

Ahmed al-Ansari, the head of ambulance services, said four people were killed and 17 were wounded, updating an earlier toll.

It was not immediately clear if all the victims were Coptic Christians.

Prime Minister Hazem Beblawi condemned the attack in a cabinet statement, calling it a "despicable criminal act," and said security forces were searching for the assailants.

"Such terrible acts will not succeed in dividing Muslims and Christians," he said.

Beblawi said police were investigating the circumstances of the attack and that he had asked authorities to provide emergency medical services to the wounded.

Egyptian Christians, the majority of whom are Copts, have been targeted since Morsi was swept out of power by the army amid mass protests against his year-long rule, and in particular since an August 14 crackdown by security forces on two Cairo camps of Morsi supporters.