■ Video shows the gunman who opened fire outside an Egyptian church walking unchallenged.

CAIRO — Video clips circulating Saturday on social media show the gunman who opened fire outside an Egyptian church and a nearby store owned by a Copt in an attack that killed at least nine people walking armed and unchallenged on a residential street for nearly 10 minutes.

The gunman, the videos show, stops only occasionally to shoot at his pursuers before he is himself shot.

The sight of the gunman’s calm just minutes after Friday’s attack contrasted with the self-congratulation pro-government media basked in Saturday; their coverage focused on how police “successfully” prevented the Islamic State militant from breaking into the church and detonating an explosive device said to have been found on him.

The videos making the rounds Saturday drew a flood of critical comments about the police’s handling of the shooting, with many of them ridiculing the lavish praise heaped on police.

The Interior Ministry said the gunman was wounded and arrested, but the Health Ministry said he was shot dead. The discrepancy could not be immediately reconciled.

It was not clear whether the gunman acted alone when he opened fire on the church, located in the Egyptian capital’s southern suburb of Helwan, and the nearby store.

The official MENA news agency quoted a top but anonymous security official as saying the gunman was one of two attackers. The Islamic State-run news agency, Aamaq, backed MENA’s assertion, saying the attack was carried out by a “security detail,” suggesting more than one assailant, and said one fighter was killed.

Friday’s attack came amid hightened security around churches and other Christian facilities in anticipation of violence on New Year’s Eve and the Jan. 7 Christmas of the Coptic Orthodox Church, by far Egypt’s largest Christian denomination.