Coptic Christian bomb attack victims’ grief-stricken relatives carry coffins of loved ones’ killed in Cairo blast
Some 25 people have so far been confirmed dead in the blast at Saint Peter and Saint Paul Church in the Egyptian capital
THE distraught relatives of those killed in yesterday’s Egyptian church bombing have carried the coffins of their loved ones through the streets in an emotional funeral procession.
The wooden boxes – each bearing a cross – were covered with the Egyptian flag and lined up at the Saint Mary and Saint Athanasuis Coptic Orthodox Church in Cairo’s Nasr City district a day after Sunday's tragedy.
A woman who lost her two daughters in the bombing was seen crying and falling to the ground next to their coffins while other mourners prayed silently.
The country’s health ministry today released a revised death toll admitting 24 people were killed in the attack on Saint Peter and Saint Paul Church – one more than was reported the previous day.
Most of the victims were women, authorities have said.
The blast also wounded 45 people, with 21 of them still remaining hospitalised, the ministry said.
The attack occurred during Sunday service at the church adjacent to Saint Mark's Cathedral, the seat of the Coptic pope Tawadros II.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the bombing.
But Coptic Christians – who make up 10 per cent of Egypt's mostly Muslim population of 90million – have previously been the targets of jihadist thugs.
The blast shattered windows and scattered pews through the interior of the church, scorching its marble pillars.
Ball-bearing-sized shrapnel peppered the walls, which are covered in icons of saints, and destroyed a box that contained a saint's relics.
Security officials said they believed a bomb containing 12kg (26lb) of TNT appeared to have been the cause of the explosion.
"I was leaving the church and then I heard a loud explosion and there was a lot of smoke and people started running and screaming," Jackline Abdel Shahid, one of the survivors, said on Sunday.
"The ambulances started coming, and they kept bringing out body parts," she added.
It was the worst attack on the Coptic Christian community since a 2011 suicide bombing killed more than 20 worshippers outside a church in the coastal city of Alexandria.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi led a chorus of local and international condemnations, denouncing what he described as "the abhorrent terrorist attack".
Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the head of Egypt's top Sunni Muslim authority Al-Azhar, branded the bombing "a great crime against all Egyptians".
The EU and Israel also offered their condolences and called for unity against global terror.
Just days before the Cairo church bombing, six policemen were killed and three injured in an explosion in the Giza district of capital, close to the ancient pyramids.
The attack occurred in the western Talibiya neighbourhood of the capital, shortly before Muslim Friday prayers and when Cairo’s streets are mostly empty.
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