An Egyptian police captain was killed on Monday when a landmine detonated during a shootout with "terrorist elements" in North Sinai's Al-Arish, an interior ministry official announced.
In an official statement, a ministry media official said that Captain Mohamed Safwat Mohamed Roshdy died from injuries sustained following the landmine explosion while security forces were chasing terrorists who had been planting a 50kg explosive device in the vicinity of an Al-Arish police station.
According to the statement, the police were able to defuse the bomb that was set to target the police station, and were able to injure one of the gunmen.
The statement added that security forces were currently intensifying efforts to catch the culprits.
Monday's attack comes only two weeks after Egypt's army announced the killing of militant group Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis leader Abu Doaa Al-Ansari and a number of his associates in air strikes against the group's strongholds south and south-west of Al-Arish.
Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, an affiliate of the Islamic State militant group, has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks against security personnel and installations in the governorate.
Egypt's security forces have been fighting a decade-long Islamist insurgency that spiked in parts of North Sinai following the 2013 ousting of president Mohamed Morsi.
