Cairo church gunman walked off after killing

A GUNMAN who shot dead at least nine people outside a Coptic Christian church in Cairo calmly walked along the street unchallenged for nearly 10 minutes, video shows.

In clips circulated on social media, the attacker is seen stopping occasionally to fire at his pursuers before being shot himself. The sight of the Isis gunman displaying an assassin’s calm contrasted with the congratulatory tone of pro-government media, whose coverage focused on how police “successfully” prevented him from breaking into the church on Friday and detonating an explosive device.

The videos, which emerged yesterday, drew a flood of criticism about the police’s handling of the shooting and ridicule of authorities for lavish praise heaped on officers.

The Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, said the gunman was wounded and arrested, but the Health Ministry said he was shot dead. The discrepancy could not be clarified. It also remained unclear whether the gunman acted alone.

Friday’s attack on Mar Mina church and a nearby shop run by a Coptic Christian came amid extraordinary security around churches and other Christian facilities in anticipation of violence on New Year’s Eve and the 7 January Christmas of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Egypt’s largest Christian denomination.

The attack’s brazenness and brutality mirrored recent operations by militants, including last month’s massacre of 311 people inside a mosque.

Egypt’s Coptic Christians have been specifically targeted by militants, who carried out a series of bombings against churches starting in December 2016, killing more than 100 and wounding scores. The local Isil affiliate has claimed responsibility for all the bombings.

Christians make up about a tenth of Egypt’s population. They have long complained of discrimination in the Muslim-majority nation and claim authorities often fail to protect them from sectarian attacks.

Just last week, hundreds of Muslim demonstrators stormed an unlicensed church south of Cairo, wounding three people. The protesters shouted anti-Christian slogans and called for the church’s demolition. They destroyed the church’s fittings and assaulted Christians inside before security personnel arrived and dispersed them.