Gunmen attacked a group of Coptic Christians in Egypt on Friday, killing 23 and injuring 25 of them, eyewitnesses said.

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.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for today's attack.

Egypt's Copts, the Middle East's largest Christian community and one of its oldest, face the worst persecution in living memory at the hands of Islamic State militants, who have threatened to wipe them out.

This image released by the Minya governorate media office shows bodies of victims killed when gunmen stormed a bus in Minya. Photo: Minya Governorate Media office/PA

Two church bombings killed at least 45 people on Palm Sunday, when Christians gather to celebrate Jesus' arrival in Jerusalem. A suicide bomber killed 28 people at Egypt's main cathedral before Christmas and an Islamic State campaign of murders in North Sinai prompted hundreds of Christians to flee in February and March.

The attacks have raised fears among Copts, who comprise roughly 10 per cent of Egypt's population of 92 million, that they will face the same fate as their brethren in Iraq and Syria, where Christian communities have been decimated by lengthy wars and Islamic State persecution.

Egypt's Copts are among the most vocal supporters of President Fattah al-Sisi, who has vowed to crush Islamist extremism and protect Christians and declared a three-month state of emergency in the aftermath of the Palm Sunday bombings.