Drive by shooting on police checkpoint kills three

Three security personnel were killed in a drive by shooting at a police checkpoint in Daqahlia on Monday morning, the Ministry of Interior reported.

Four unknown assailants whose faces were covered reportedly rode past the checkpoint on two motorcycles, armed with two automatic weapons, said the statement. The checkpoint was located near the Talkha Bridge.

The prosecution has initiated investigations into the incident by inspecting the scene of the shooting and interviewing eyewitnesses.

Preliminary investigations suggested that 75 shots were fired in the assault. The three victims were shot a total of 10 times, reported the privately owned newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm.

The general prosecution requested autopsy reports from the forensic authorities, and also asked national security forces and the relevant authorities to launch their own investigations.

A funeral procession for the victims was attended by several colleagues and the governorate’s top security figures.

Attacks on police stations and checkpoints have become a regular occurrence over the past three months. On August 14, during the nationwide unrest that followed the violent dispersal of pro-Muslim Brotherhood sit-ins in Cairo, 43 police officers were killed in one day in the course of attacks on police stations.