Egypt retrieved on Tuesday the bodies of three members of an Egyptian Coptic Christian family murdered in Libya in what is believed to be a religiously-motivated attack, state news agency MENA reported.

A Coptic Christian couple was killed last Tuesday by unidentified gunmen in their house in the city of Sirte, east of Tripoli – now controlled by Islamist militia groups.

Their teenage daughter were abducted by the killers, only for local residents to find her body two days later, a local hospital source said.

The bodies arrived at Cairo international airport early on Tuesday via Turkey, and were received by a church delegation, a foreign ministry official and several family members.

A number of Coptic Egyptians have been killed in Libya in recent times amid a surge of Islamist militancy in the North African state since the 2011 toppling of longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi.

In February, seven Egyptian Christians were found shot dead execution-style on a beach in eastern Libya.

Thousands of Egyptians work in Libya, a key destination for Egyptian migrant workers, mainly in the construction industry.