An Egyptian criminal court on Wednesday sentenced six people allegedly belonging to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group to death for the 2016 killing of two policemen, a judicial source said.

The court also handed down sentences of up to 10 years in jail to seven others in the case, in which two policemen were killed in the northern province of Sharqiya and their guns stolen.

Five of those sentenced to death were tried in absentia while one appeared in court in Zagazig, the capital of Sharqiya.

The prosecution alleged that all 13 belonged to a Muslim Brotherhood cell in the province, located near Cairo.

Charges against the defendants included murder, joining a terror group, attempting to overthrow the government and fomenting chaos.

Authorities in Egypt outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist political movement, after the 2013 military overthrow of president Mohamed Morsi, who hailed from the organisation.

Under the rule of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, hundreds of suspected Islamists have been convicted in mass trials that rights groups have slammed as unfair, with dozens executed in recent years.