IS claims attacks on Coptic churches
EGYPT: Twin bombings devastated Egypt’s Christian community, killing at least 44 people as Palm Sunday celebrations were crushed by blood-spattered violence.
Islamic State immediately claimed responsibility for the blasts at Alexandria and Tanta, which also injured more than 100 people.
The latest in a string of assaults on Egypt’s Christian minority came as Pope Francis prepares to visit in a show of support later this month.
In the Nile delta town of Tanta, about 100 kilometres north of Cairo, a bomb tore through the packed Mar Gerges church, killing at least 27 worshippers and injuring more than 70.
Hundreds gathered outside the church shortly after the blast, some weeping and wearing black, while inside, pews were blown apart and a symbolic display of palm fronds was left covered in blood.
Witnesses to the Mar Gerges blast said the suicide bomber had been close to the first row of pews when he detonated a device.
Most of the dead, said bystanders, were church servants who had been performing ceremonial duties near the altar at the front of the church.
‘‘I kept looking at the human remains, but I didn’t recognise who was who because their faces were so damaged, even though I know them,’’ church steward Victor Foad said.
The church entrance was equipped with a detector for weapons and explosives, leading many to wonder how the atrocity could have happened.
Hours later in Alexandria, 120km to the west, another suicide bomber blew himself up outside St Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, Egypt’s oldest church and the historic seat of the church’s pope. At least 17 people were killed and more than 40 injured.
Pope Tawadros led the St Mark’s Mass but had already left when the bombing occurred. ’’These acts will not harm the unity and cohesion of the people,’’ he later said.
Eyewitnesses said the Alexandria attack happened outside the main gate of the church compound, after the suicide bomber was blocked by police from entering.
‘‘When the police officer tried to stop him by force, he exploded the explosive belt, killing the police officer and himself,’’ said Kameel Sadiq Sawiras, secretary general of the church council.
The atrocities are the latest assault on a religious minority increasingly targeted by Islamist militants, and a challenge to President Abdel Fattah al-sisi, who has pledged to protect them in his campaign against extremism.
At about 10 per cent of the population, Egypt’s Coptic Christians form the largest minority in the Muslim-majority country of 90 million. – Telegraph Group