An undercover policeman and a guard were shot dead in a southern Egyptian village by two men they were trying to apprehend, the state-owned MENA news agency reported Sunday.
Hamdi Halaqa, who has served time for possessing arms and forged money and is registered with police as "dangerous," allegedly opened fire with fellow villager Maged Bakhit, killing the secret policeman Mamduh Mohammed and guard Kamel Abdel Alim when they tried to detain them Saturday, MENA said.
A soldier who was accompanying the two security men was also wounded in the incident in al-Shamia village in the Asiut region, around 390 kilometers (240 miles) south of Cairo, the agency reported overnight.
The two assailants escaped and investigators launched a hunt for them.
The policeman had suspected the two men of carrying guns as he was passing through the south Egyptian village, the news agency said -- CAIRO (AFP)
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