A police sergeant was shot dead and a low-ranking policeman injured Wednesday afternoon in the North Sinai governorate capital Al-Arish, Egypt's interior ministry announced.

In a short statement, the interior ministry said that the two police personnel working in in Al-Arish city were shot by an unknown assailant driving in a car.

The two police personnel were shot outside of a police station.

The assailants are still at large.

Earlier this week, two police personnel, including a police captain, were killed and others injured in two different attacks against security forces in North Sinai.

Egypt's security forces are fighting a decade-long Islamist insurgency in parts of North Sinai, which has spiked since 2013.

An ongoing military campaign aims at purging the governorate of militants through "pre-emptive strikes against terrorist elements," according to an army statement in May.