Girl (8) among three killed in attack on church in Egypt

Egypt’s interim prime minister has condemned an attack outside a Cairo Coptic church that killed three people, including an eight-year-old girl, pledging police would do everything possible to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Prime minister Hazem el-Beblawi said in a statement today that the gun attack last night was a “callous and criminal act”.

He says such attacks will “not succeed in sowing divisions between the nation’s Muslims and Christians”.

The attack took place in the Waraa neighbourhood of the Egyptian capital, when masked gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on a wedding party outside a Coptic church, killing a man, a woman and the child.

Since a military coup ousted the country’s Islamist president in July there have been stepped-up attacks against Egypt’s Coptic Christians and their churches.