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The group was
traveling in two buses and a small truck in Minya province,
which is home to a sizeable Christian minority, the sources
said.
Provincial governor Essam al-Bedaiwy said earlier that 23 people
had been killed and 25 wounded.
Eyewitnesses said the Copts were attacked as they were going to
pray at the monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor in the
western part of the province.
They said masked men stopped the vehicles on a road leading to
the monastery and opened fire.
Coptic Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's
population of 92 million, have been the subject of a series of
deadly attacks in recent months.
About 70 have been killed in bomb attacks on churches in the
cities of Cairo, Alexandria and Tanta since December.
Those attacks were claimed by Islamic State. There was no
immediate claim of responsibility for Friday's attack.
(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein and Mohamed Abdellah; Writing by
Giles Elgood; Editing by Louise Ireland and Gareth Jones)
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