CAIRO: Gunmen stormed a courthouse in the southern city of Aswan to free two men who had just been sentenced on drugs charges on Sunday, a security official said, in a fresh case of rising insecurity in post-revolt Egypt.

Five men armed with automatic weapons stormed the Aswan courthouse to free two relatives shortly after they were sentenced to three years in prison on drugs charges, the official said.

"Several cars were waiting for them outside the courthouse. They all managed to get away," the official said, adding that police were combing the area for the gunmen and their accomplices.

Since the uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak last February, Egypt has seen sporadic and sometimes deadly unrest coupled with a sharp rise in crime.