By Adam Moro and Ugur Cil

ANKARA (AA): Ten people were killed Friday, including eight Coptic Christians, including a Muslim police officer in an armed attack on a church south of capital Cairo, according to Egyptian officials.

Five other people were injured at Marmina church in Helwan district, the ministry added, at least two of whom were in critical condition.

At least two gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire outside the church.

“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 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 Ministry of the Interior said on its Facebook page that the suspected attacker was 33-year-old Ibrahim Ismail Ismail Moustafa, and he was known to have participated in five different attacks between 2016 and 2017. The ministry’s statement called the suspect “a well-known terrorist who participated before in attacks on police men and civilians.”

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack late Friday in a statement from the ISIS-affiliated news agency Amaq. The group and its affiliates have previously claimed responsibility in several attacks on the minority Christians in other parts of the country.which occurred shortly after the army announced the death of six soldiers and three gunmen in separate armed confrontations in the Sinai Peninsula and Beni Sueif province.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry condemned the Cairo attack.

“We condemn the terrorist attack perpetrated today in a church of Cairo and which caused many casualties,” it said in a statement.

“We convey our condolences to the families and brotherly people of Egypt and wish a speedy recovery to the wounded.”

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.

Additional report by The Muslim News

[Photo:  Funeral ceremony at Mary Church the Mar Mina Church attacks victims in Helwan City, south of Cairo, Egypt on December 29, 2017.  Photographer: Stringer/AA]