Egyptian policemen killed in Minya

Two low-ranking policemen were killed in Upper Egypt's Minya on Sunday, the interior ministry said in a statement.

The policemen, Ahmed Asnai and Mohamed Mahfouz, were shot while standing on a road and then fell into an adjacent water channel, the statement said. Police forces were dispatched to track down the shooters.

On Saturday, a police officer was killed in a similar way in the Nile Delta governorate of Sharqiya.

Hundreds of police and military personnel have been killed since the army's popularly-backed ouster of president Mohamed Morsi last July.

The militant Islamist group Ansar Beit Al Maqdis has claimed responsibility for most of the major attacks against police and military targets.