CAIRO: Egypt’s former grand mufti survived an attempt on his life in a western Cairo suburb when two masked gunmen opened fire as he was walking toward a mosque to hold Friday prayers, an Egyptian security official said.

Sheikh Ali Gomaa was unharmed in the attack and the two attackers fled the scene outside the Fadel Mosque in the city’s Sixth of October district, Capt. Ahmed Alaa told The Associated Press.

The Interior Ministry said the gunmen had been hiding inside a small park nearby and opened fire from there. One of Gomaa’s bodyguards was slightly wounded, the ministry said.

Talking to local CBC network, the cleric later said it wasn’t the first assassination attempt against him and that he received death threats before.