Gunmen killed an Egyptian policeman southwest of Cairo on Saturday, the interior ministry said.

Gunmen killed an Egyptian policeman southwest of Cairo on Saturday, the interior ministry said.

The assailants were hiding in a field and fired on a convoy transporting two prisoners due for release, before fleeing the scene, a police general told AFP.

The shooting came days after policemen killed five suspects in Fayoum province, southwest of Cairo.

Militants have killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen since the army overthrew Islamist president Mohammad Mursi in 2013.

Most of the attacks have taken place in the sparsely populated Sinai Peninsula, where the ISIL group's Egypt affiliate is based.

Mursi's ouster unleashed a crackdown on his supporters in which more than 1,000 people have been killed and thousands jailed.