EGYPT: Deadly mosque attack claims 258 lives, 120 others injured

At least 258 people have reportedly died when tragedy struck again in the thinly populated Sinai Peninsula of Egypt after and another 120 others injured in a gun and bomb attack at a mosque in the area.

Reports say the attackers had earlier planted explosives at the mosque and opened fire on unsuspecting worshipers were running from the bomb blast.

People had gathered in their numbers at the worship centre while sermon was under way.

“They were shooting at people as they left the mosque,” a local resident whose relatives were at the scene told Reuters. “They were shooting at the ambulances too.”

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Moments after the attack, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a former armed forces commander who presents himself as a bulwark against Islamist militants in the region, convened an emergency security meeting.

As at the time of filing in this report, no group had claimed responsibility for the attack which is now regarded as the deadliest yet in the region where for three years Egyptian security forces have battled an Islamic State insurgency that has killed hundreds of police and soldiers.

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