Senior Egypt pro-government cleric escapes shooting

Cairo: Gunmen opened fire at a former Egyptian mufti, Ali Gomaa, in Cairo on Friday, missing the pro-government cleric but wounding his bodyguard, security officials said.

Gomaa was on his way to a mosque in the capital to lead weekly prayers when two assailants on a motorbike opened fire, three police officials said.

A bodyguard was wounded in the shooting, they said.

Gomaa later told Egyptian state television of how he had taken shelter behind a mosque wall when the shooting started.

After the attack, he "conducted the Friday prayers as a message to these people", the cleric said in a telephone interview.

Gomaa was Egypt`s most senior Muslim cleric for a decade until 2013.

He strongly backed the army`s overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi that year and the subsequent deadly crackdown on his supporters.

Since stepping down as mufti -- the official interpreter of Islamic law -- Gomaa has remained one of the country`s top Islamic scholars.

He is for his moderate views on religion but reviled by the Islamist opposition for his support of the crackdown against them that has killed hundreds of protesters.