Cairo, Oct 28 (IANS/AKI): Gunmen Monday shot dead three police officers at a security checkpoint in the city of Mansoura in Egypt's northern Dakahlia governorate, according to media reports.

The daily Al-Ahram's website cited eyewitnesses as saying that around four gunmen on motorcycles opened fire at the checkpoint on the outskirts of the Nile Delta city.

The area was under a security lockdown after the attack, and investigators recovered 60 bullet casings at the scene, Al-Ahram said.

An Egyptian police officer died and four conscripts were injured Oct 22 in a bombing in lawless North Sinai amid a surge in attacks by suspected militants in the province, security sources said.

Militants have stepped up their attacks on security personnel in North Sinai province and elsewhere in the country since the army ousted democratically elected Islamist president Mohamed Morsi July 3 amid mass protests against his rule.

Strategic areas with a heavy police and military presence such as the Suez Canal cities have also been attacked, Al-Ahram reported.

More than 100 members of Egypt's security forces have been killed in the Sinai Peninsula since early July, the military said last month.