A gunman who opened fire outside a church south of Cairo has killed at least four people and wounded five more. At least one of the dead was a policeman.

Egyptian authorities say the attacker was shot dead Friday at the Mary Mina Church, a Coptic church, in the Helwan district.

Officials say they are searching for a possible second gunman.

Details about the attack are still coming in, and there has been no immediate claim of responsibility.

The Islamic State group, however, has killed dozens of Christians in church shootings and bombings in the past year. 

Twenty-eight people were killed in May 2017, when militants opened fired on a bus that carried Coptic Christians who were making their way to St. Samuel the Confessor monastery in the southern town of Maghagha.

In April 2017, two churches were hit by suicide bombers in Alexandria, a coastal city, and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. The attack, during Palm Sunday services, killed at least 43 people and dozens were wounded.

A bombing at a chapel next to Egypt’s main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo killed 30 people in December 2016.
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