(Bloomberg) -- A gunman killed 11 people and injured eight others near Egypt's capital on Friday before he was shot dead by security guards.
Two people were killed when the gunman, who was riding a motorcycle, fired at shops before turning his attack on a church in Helwan, south of Cairo, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. Nine people were killed and eight injured at the Mar Mina Church, Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Mogahed said by phone, adding that the gunman was also shot dead. The Interior Ministry put the death toll at the church at seven.
The violence comes a day after a roadside bomb killed six people -- including a senior army officer -- in the Sinai peninsula, where just over a month ago Egypt suffered its deadliest attack in recent memory. After militants shot dead more than 300 people in a mosque, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi ordered the military to restore security in northern Sinai within three months. Authorities believe Islamic State group was behind the attack.
The fatalities at the church in Helwan on Friday included eight Coptic Christians and one Muslim, Health Ministry spokesman Mogahed said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Tarek El-Tablawy in Cairo at teltablawy@bloomberg.net, Dana Khraiche in Beirut at dkhraiche@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net, Stuart Biggs, Caroline Alexander
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