(Photo: AP)

CAIRO, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian police killed 14 terrorists after hours of shootout in Arish city of North Sinai province northeastern the country, the Egyptian Interior Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

The police killed eight of them after hours of fire exchange, then a group of six terrorists ran away but the police pursued them and killed them all, according to the statement.

"Many weapons, ammunition and explosive devices were found in their possession," said the statement.

Egypt has been suffering terrorist activities that killed hundreds of policemen, soldiers and civilians following the popular-backed military ouster of former Muslim Brotherhood-oriented President Mohamed Morsi in early July 2013 and the later security crackdown on his supporters.

Morsi's Brotherhood group is currently blacklisted in Egypt as a terrorist organization.

Most of the terror attacks in Egypt in the past few years were claimed by a Sinai-based group loyal to the Islamic State (IS) regional terrorist group.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian army and police killed hundreds of terrorists and arrested thousands of suspects during the country's anti-terror war declared by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, the army chief then, following Morsi's ouster.