Egypt’s interior ministry denied on Saturday media reports that a shootout in Sharqiyya province at dawn on the same day was a terrorist attack.
An Egyptian student killed a policeman before he was shot dead in an exchange of fire at a state security headquarters in the Zagazig, agencies and TV reports had said.
According to a source at the ministry, quoted by the Arabic daily Al Ahram, Hisham Mohammad Nagi, 32, used his father’s pistol in the attack. He killed officer Ibrahim Abdel Hafiz and wounded two others before being shot and dying during surgery.
The source added that Nagi was known to be suffering from depression “due to failure in his studies.”
Hisham, according to the unnamed security official, stole the gun from his father to commit his crime, “which was an individual act.”
AFP also quoted an interior ministry statement Saturday as saying that the student was armed with a pistol and believed to be suffering from depression.
"It was an isolated act and not a terrorist one," the ministry said, in reference to the country's record of political violence.
However, witnesses told AFP that the student had a beard and an automatic weapon, suggesting he was an Islamic militant.
Al Jazeera satellite channel also confirmed that the assailant had a machinegun. Officials told the station that the student was "mentally disturbed."
According to AFP, witnesses said the gunman was killed by General Ahmed Nada, the deputy director of security for Sharqiyya, who lives close to his headquarters and left his home when he heard the gunfire.
However, AP reported that "gunmen" were involved in the bloody attack, citing an official as saying that those behind it "are believed to be terrorists," a government term for Muslim extremists.
Islamic extremists launched an insurrection against the government in 1992, which faded under the weight of a crackdown following their massacre of 58 tourists and four Egyptians in Luxor in November 1997 - Albawaba.com
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