A police officer was shot and killed on Friday by masked gunmen on a motorcycle in Sharqeya governorate, northeast of Cairo.

The officer was shot in the chest and head while on his way home from work. He was killed immediately. The assailants have yet to be captured.

There have been several attacks against police officers in Sharqeya, and across the country. since the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi on 3 July 2013. The attacks in Sharqeya spiked earlier this year, in February and March.

In February, the governorate saw four similar attacks against security forces in one week alone, claiming the lives of three police officers. After Major Mohamed Eid, who was also a Homeland Security officer, was killed on 24 February. Then-prime minister Hazem El-Beblawi said such attacks reflected “the bankruptcy of terrorist elements”.

On 8 March, two police officers were critically wounded by two gunmen on a motorbike. A third officer managed to mortally wound one of the attackers, a 29 year-old theology student.

Over 600 members of Egypt’s police and military have been killed since the 2011 uprising that overthrew former president Hosni Mubarak.