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A heroic bomb disposal cop was killed as he tried to difuse a device left outside a petrol station in a city centre.

Video pictures show the Egyptian policeman approaching the device which was hidden in a plant pot outside a petrol station in Cairo yesterday.

But it blew up, killing him and injuring three bystanders.

(Image: Getty)

Crowds of people rushed to the stricken officer in busy Al-Harram Street, which leads to the pyramids, but he could not be helped.

Islamic militants, some allied with IS, claimed responsibility for the attack.

They have been fighting the Egyptian army, which overthrew the country’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, in 2013.

(Image: Getty)

It comes as threats of more terrorist attacks have increased with Egypt's Coptic Christmas today.

Security is typically tightened at churches ahead of the holiday after a string of attacks on Christian targets over the past years.

Interior Ministry spokesman Hany Abdel Latif was quoted by state newspaper Al-Ahram as saying Tuesday's attack in Minya was not sectarian.

(Image: Getty)

"(It) has nothing to do with any of the holidays of our Coptic brothers, it is instead aimed at the security forces, to try to undermine their resolve."

The country's Coptic Christians, who make up about 10 percent of the population of 85 million, have largely coexisted peacefully with majority Sunni Muslims for centuries.

But following the army's ousting of President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in July 2013, a number of churches and Christian properties were burned and destroyed in the impoverished south that is home to many Christians.

(Image: Getty)

The Brotherhood said at the time it had nothing to do with attacks on Christians and accused the army of cynically using the minority population to justify a fierce security crackdown.

The most populous Arab nation faces a jihadist insurgency that has killed hundreds of soldiers and police since Mursi's overthrow.

A group of Sinai-based militants has pledged allegiance to Islamic State, the al Qaeda offshoot that controls parts of Iraq and Syria.