Cairo:At least eight security personnel were killed and three others injured in a terror attack on a checkpoint in Egypt's New Valley Governorate, some 600 km south of Cairo, according to a statement of Egypt's Health Ministry.

The statement said that the armed forces have reached the scene and killed two attackers while in chase of others, Xinhua news agency reported.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Anti-security attacks are common in Egypt after the ouster of the Islamist president Mohamed Morsi by the army in 2013.

Most of the attacks were centred in Sinai, but others have been crept into the capital Cairo and other cities.

On December 9, six policemen were killed when bombs exploded at a security checkpoint in Cairo in a road leading to the Giza Pyramids. -Agency