The death toll in a devastating militant attack on a mosque on Friday in Egypt's North Sinai has risen to 305 people, including 27 children, according to the country's state news agency.
As the official death toll rose on Saturday morning, more details emerged of the attack, the deadliest by Islamist extremists in Egypt's modern history.
Witnesses said four off-road vehicles carrying armed men arrived at the al-Rawdah mosque just as the noon sermon was about to start.
The main cleric at the mosque, Sheikh Mohamed Abdel Fatah Zowraiq, said at least a dozen attackers charged in, opening fire randomly.
He said there were also explosions. Officials cited by the state news agency MENA said the attackers fired rocket-propelled grenades as well as machine guns, and shot people as they tried to run from the building.
Three police officers on the scene said the militants also cut off escape routes and impeded those trying to get into Bir al-Abed to stop the attack by blocking roads with burning cars.
Abdullah Abdel-Nasser, 14, who was attending prayers with his father, said the shooting began just as the cleric was about to start his sermon, sending panicked worshippers rushing to hide behind concrete columns or whatever shelter they could find.
At one point, a militant shouted for children to leave, so Abdel-Nasser said he rushed out, despite being wounded in the shoulder by shrapnel and a bullet.
"I saw many people on the floor, many dead. I don't think anyone survived," he said, speaking to the Associated Press at a hospital in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia.
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