Unknown Gunmen Kill 8-Year-Old, Others At Church Wedding

Police on Monday conduct a searched for a gunman who murdered three people at a church wedding in the late Sunday attack - the first attack targeting Christians in Cairo since the ouster of Egypt's Islamist president.

An 8-year-old innocent girl was among those killed at the Church of the Virgin in Cairo's working class neighbourhood of Al-Warrak. Eighteen people were injured.

According to the the interior ministry, two men appeared on a motorbike and one of them opened fire when the crowd emerged from a wedding service.

In his cabinet statement the Prime Minister Hazem Beblawi condemned the attack and called it a "despicable criminal act," and said security forces were searching for the assailants.

"Such terrible acts will not succeed in dividing Muslims and Christians," he said.

Egyptian Christians, the majority of whom are Copts, have been targeted since Morsi was deprived of power by the army amid mass protests against his year-long rule, and in particular since an August 14 crackdown by security forces on two Cairo camps of Morsi supporters.

Islamists were enraged by the deadly crackdown and accused Coptic Christians of backing the coup that toppled Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood and was Egypt's first democratically elected president.

This perception was fuelled by the appearance of Coptic Pope Tawadros II alongside army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi when he made a statement on TV about Morsi's removal from office. Muslim leaders and other politicians were also present.

Earlier this month Amnesty International reported that more than 200 Christian-owned properties had been attacked and 43 had been damaged since the August 14 crackdown.

Amnesty International accused Egyptian security forces for their inability to stop these "revenge attacks" .

Meanwhile the Muslim Brotherhood condemned Sunday's attack and blamed it in part on the military-installed authorities.

Egypt's new government is engaged in a widespread crackdown on Islamists, imprisoning more than 2,000 since the storming of the pro-Morsi camps.

Morsi himself will go on trial on November 4 over deadly clashes between his supporters and opponents outside the presidential palace in December 2012. Most of the Brotherhood's leaders are also in custody. Last month the Muslim Brotherhood was banned from operating and its assets were seized by court ruling.