Militants killed more than 235 people at a mosque in North Sinai today, detonating a bomb and gunning down worshippers in the deadliest such attack in Egypt's modern history, state media and witnesses said.
No group immediately claimed responsibility, but since 2013 Egyptian security forces have battled an Islamic State affiliate in the mainly desert region, and militants have killed hundreds of police and soldiers.
State media showed images of bloodied victims and bodies covered in blankets inside the Al Rawdah mosque in Bir al-Abed, west of El Arish, the main city in North Sinai.
Worshippers were finishing Friday prayers at the mosque when a bomb exploded, witnesses said. Around 40 gunmen set up positions outside the mosque with jeeps and opened fire from different directions as people tried to escape.
The public prosecutors' office said in a statement 235 people had been killed and 109 more wounded.
Hours after the attack, Egypt's military launched airstrikes on targets in mountainous areas around Bir al-Abed, security sources and witnesses said.
"The armed forces and the police will avenge our martyrs and restore security and stability with the utmost force," Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said in a televised address.
"What is happening is an attempt to stop us from our efforts in the fight against terrorism, to destroy our efforts to stop the terrible criminal plan that aims to destroy what is left of our region."
President Michael D Higgins offered the sympathy of the Irish people to the families of the victims.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Simon Coveney condemned the attack which he described as "heinous". He said the Egyptian people "have long shown their resolve against hatred and intolerance".
The attack took place roughly 40km west of the provincial capital of El-Arish, police officials said.
The victims included civilians and conscripts praying at the mosque.
"They were shooting at people as they left the mosque," a local resident whose relatives were at the scene said. "They were shooting at the ambulances too."
Arabiya news channel and some local sources said some of the worshippers were Sufis, who hardliners such as the so-called Islamic State regard as apostates because they revere saints and shrines which for Islamists is tantamount to idolatry.
