28 killed as gunmen open fire on Coptic Christian bus

AT LEAST 28 people have died and another 22 were injured after masked militants opened fire on a bus packed with Coptic Christians, including children, south of the Egyptian capital.

The assault happened while the bus was travelling on a side road in the desert leading to the remote monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor in Maghagha, in Minya, about 140 miles south of Cairo.

Witnesses saw between eight and 10 attackers, dressed in military uniforms and wearing masks.

The victims were en route from the nearby province of Beni Suef to visit the monastery.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, the fourth to target Christians since December, but it bore the hallmarks of Islamic State (IS).

The attack came on the eve of the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Islamic militants have for years been waging an insurgency mostly centred in the restive northern part of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, although a growing number of attacks have recently also taken place on the mainland.

The militant Islamic group Hamas, which rules Gaza, has condemned the attack.

Spokesman Fawzi Barhoum called the shooting “an ugly crime”, of which “the enemies of Egypt” are the only beneficiaries.

Security and medical officials feared the death toll could rise further. According to the Copts United news portal, only three children survived the attack. It is not immediately known how many of the victims were children.

Arab TV stations showed images of a badly damaged bus along a roadside, many of its windows shattered and with numerous bullet holes.

Footage of the bus’ interior showed bloodstains on the seats and shattered glass. Ambulances are seen parked around the bus and bodies are lying on the ground, covered with black plastic sheets.

The surge in attacks targeting Christians in Egypt has added to the challenges facing President AbdelFattah el-Sissi’s government as it struggles to contain the insurgency while pushing ahead with ambitious reforms to revive the country’s ailing economy.

There was no immediate response from the government to yesterday’s attack, but it is likely to heighten security around churches, monasteries, schools and annual pilgrimages to remote Christian sites.

On Wednesday, Egypt blocked access to nearly two dozen websites it said were sympathetic to militants or spreading their ideology.

“The growing number of these terror attacks is not at all reassuring,” Fr Rafic Greiche, the spokesman for the Egyptian Catholic Church, told a local television station.