CAIRO, Aug 8 (Aswat Masriya) - A policeman was killed and three conscripts were injured after unidentified assailants shot at a police transport vehicle on Saturday, a security source said.

The vehicle was on the Cairo-Fayoum road, transporting prisoners, when the attack took place, the source told Aswat Masriya.

Fayoum is about 85 kilometres south of Cairo. 

The director of Fayoum security received notice from a local hospital director that the policeman was killed after sustaining a bullet to the neck.

An initial inspection of the scene suggested that the assailants were riding a motorbike when they opened fire at the police vehicle. The policemen exchanged fire with them but they fled the scene, the Interior Ministry later said in a statement, adding that the attack was carried out by two assailants. 

Bombings and shootings targeting security forces have surged inside Egypt since the military ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Mursi in July 2013, following mass protests against his rule.