Isis has claimed responsibility for an attack on a bus carrying Coptic Christians which left 29 people, including children, dead.

Egyptian authorities said the victims were travelling through the Minya region towards Maghagha in the north west of the country when they were surrounded by eight to 10 attackers wearing military uniforms and masks who then opened fire, on Friday.

The Christians had been on a pilgrimage to the St Samuel the Confessor monastery when the attack took place.

Television footage at the scene showed a bus raked with bullets and windows smashed and surrounded by bodies covered in black plastic sheets.

A further 24 people were also wounded in the spree. Local media reported that only three children survived the attack.

The Egyptian military launched several air strikes on suspected militant training camps in Libya in response to the atrocities.

A statement from a military spokesperson did not specify precisely where the strikes were conducted but state television said on Friday that operations were focused on the eastern Libyan city of Derna.

The spokesperson said: “The air force has conducted several intensive day and night-time strikes. They targeted several gatherings of terrorist elements within Libyan territory after coordinating and fully verifying all information.

In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings Show all 15 1 /15 In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings Egypt Egyptian Coptics mourn for the 21 men murdered by Isis AP In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings Egypt A man is comforted by others as he mourns over Egyptian Coptic Christians who were captured in Libya and killed by militants affiliated with the Islamic State group, outside of the Virgin Mary church in the village of el-Aour, near Minya, 220 kilometers (135 miles) south of Cairo In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings Egypt Women mourn over Egyptian Coptic Christians who were captured in Libya and killed by Isis militants In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings Egypt A relative of one of the Egyptian Coptic Christians purportedly murdered by Isis reacts after hearing the news in the village of Al-Awar in Egypt's southern province of Minya In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings Egypt Relatives of Egyptian Coptic Christians purportedly murdered by Isis militants in Libya react after hearing the news in the village of al-Awar in Egypt's southern province of Minya In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings Egypt President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi offers his condolences to some of the Coptic families AFP In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings Egypt The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb (R) offers his condolences to Egypt's Coptic Pope Tawadros II at Saint-Mark's Coptic Cathedral in Cairo's al-Abbassiya district In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings Egypt A Coptic clergyman shows a picture of a man whom he says is one of the Egyptian Coptic Christians purportedly murdered by Isis militants in Libya, during a memorial ceremony in the village of al-Awar in Egypt's southern province of Minya In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings Egypt Relatives of Egyptian Coptic Christians murdered by Isis militants in Libya wlak through the village of Al-Awar in Egypt's southern province of Minya In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings Egypt A family relative of abducted Coptic Christian weeps AP In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings Egypt Men mourn over Egyptian Coptic Christians who were captured in Libya and killed by militants affiliated with the Islamic State group, inside of the Virgin Mary Church in the village of el-Aour, near Minya, 220 kilometers (135 miles) south of Cairo In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings Egypt Men mourn over Egyptian Coptic Christians who were captured in Libya and killed by militants affiliated with the Islamic State group, inside the Virgin Mary Church in the village of el-Aour, near Minya, 220 kilometers (135 miles) south of Cairo In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings Egypt Protesters hold placards during a demonstration against the killing of Egyptian Coptic Christians by militants of the Islamic State in Libya, in Cairo In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings Egypt Egyptians protest what they characterise as Government inaction in reaction to the kidnapping of Copts in Libya, Cairo EPA In pictures: Coptic Christians mourn victims of Isis beheadings Egypt A Coptic Christian woman prays for the release of 21 Coptic Egyptian men AP

“The strikes led to the destruction of the planned targets, which included concentrated areas for the training of terrorist elements that participated in the planning and implementation of the Minya attack,” he added.

In an address to the nation on Friday following the Minya shooting, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said Egypt would not hesitate to carry out further strikes against camps that trained people to carry out operations against Egypt, whether those camps were inside or outside the country.

Muslim leaders, including the Grand Mufti of Egypt and the Grand Imam of al-Azhar – Egypt’s 1,000-year-old centre of Islamic learning – condemned what they called an act of “brutal terrorism”.

The Coptic church said it had received news of the killing of its “martyrs” with pain and sorrow.

The attack is the second time Isis has targeted the beleaguered Christian minority in Egypt in recent months following twin bombings that killed at least 44 people in churches in Tanta and Alexandria on Palm Sunday last month.

Isis has targeted numerous religious minorities including Coptic Christians – who have been beheaded in Libya – and Sufi and Shia Muslims, who have been massacred across the Middle East.

It has also particularly persecuted the Yazidi communities in Iraq – men were murdered and women were sold into sex slavery when the group declared its “caliphate” in 2014.