CAIRO (AFP) - Gunmen on a motorbike shot dead three people, including an eight-year-old girl, late Sunday as they fired on a group outside a church in Cairo, Egypt's interior ministry said.

The attack was the first such assault targeting Christians in Cairo since the military coup that ousted Islamist president Mohamed Mursi.

It targeted a group of people who had emerged from the church in north Cairo's Al-Warak neighbourhood after attending a wedding, the ministry said.

It said an eight-year-old girl, a woman and a man were killed and nine others wounded in the attack.

"There were two men on a motorbike and one of them opened fire," said the interior ministry.

A health ministry official confirmed three people had been killed but said 12 people had in fact been wounded.

Ahmed al-Ansari from the health ministry told AFP that four of the 12 were in a critical condition, adding the number of wounded could rise.