A gunman opened fire on a church south of Cairo on Friday and was shot dead by policemen, police officials said.

Egypt's Ministry of Health confirmed that ten people were killed in the attack. The church also issued a statement confirming one policeman and seven civilians dead.

The gunman had opened fire outside the church, wounding five security guards, and tried to storm the building when police shot him dead, the officials said.

Earlier, an Al Arabiya reporter on the ground said that three policemen were killed at the scene. She confirmed the arrest of a second identified gunman involved in the attack.

The Al Arabiya reporter also confirmed that police identified the dead gunman as ibrahim Ismail Ismail, who possessed a hand grenade and a machine gun.

A picture of the alleged gunman's corpse published on the official Al-Ahram newspaper's website showed a bearded man wearing a bulky ammunition vest sprawled on a street.

Egyptians have already taken to Twitter reacting to the incident.

The ISIS group's affiliate in Egypt has killed dozens of Christians in church bombings and shootings over the past year, and has threatened further attacks against the minority.

Egypt's Coptic Christians make up about 10 percent of the country's 93 million people, and are the largest religious minority in the region.

source: Alarabiya