At least 235 people have been killed and dozens more injured after alleged militants set off a bomb and opened fire on people attending prayers at a mosque in Egypt’s northern Sinai, Reuters reported.
No group has claimed responsibility for the assault.
Local media showed images of bloodied victims and bodies covered in blankets inside the Al Rawdah mosque in Bir al-Abed, west of the city of El Arish. At least 125 people were wounded, the MENA news agency reported.
“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.”
Arabiya news channel and some local sources said some of the worshippers were sufis who members of the Islamic State group regard as "apostates" because they revere saints and shrines.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a former Armed Forces commander, convened an emergency security meeting soon after the attack, state television said.
In July, at least 23 soldiers were killed when suicide car bombs hit two military checkpoints in the Sinai, an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.
Militants have tried to expand beyond the largely barren, desert Sinai Peninsula into Egypt’s heavily populated mainland, hitting Coptic Christian churches and pilgrims.
In May, gunmen attacked a Coptic group traveling to a monastery in southern Egypt, killing 29.