A policeman died Thursday after sustaining injuries from an improvised explosive device that detonated in the troubled North Sinai city of Al-Arish, state news agency MENA reported.

The security patrol was passing through a street in Al-Arish when the roadside bomb exploded.

Four policemen sustained minor injuries during the explosion and were transported to a nearby hospital.

Egypt has been working to quell an Islamist insurgency that spiked after the 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi and has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of security forces.

The army has said that hundreds of militants have been killed in counterterrorism campaigns in the governorate.