Cairo: At least 25 people were killed and 49 others injured on Sunday in an explosion at the Coptic Cathedral in Abbasiya’s neighbourhood of Cairo, officials said in a statement.
The security forces rushed to the scene and launched operations to search the assailants and other possible explosive devices, said a statement by the Interior Ministry. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.
Security forces, medical teams and firefighters beefed up presence near the Cathedral Complex that contains a number of Churches as well as the residence place of the head of Egypt’s Orthodox Church – Coptic Pope Tawadros II.
Sources at the Cathedral Church said that an unknown person threw a bomb inside the al-Botrossiya Coptic Church which was packed due to Sunday mass. In Egypt, bomb attacks are endemic in North Sinai Province due to the presence of Islamic State-affiliated Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis group that has carried out hundreds of anti-security attacks following the ouster of the Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.
On Friday, six policemen were killed when explosive devices exploded at a security checkpoint stationed on the road leading to the Pyramids near Cairo. A minor Islamist military faction claimed responsibility for the attack.
