Funerals have been held in two Cairo churches for 41 victims of a fire that ripped through a Coptic Christian church during mass, forcing worshippers to jump out of windows.
AFRIPOST reports that the blaze on Sunday, blamed on an electrical fault, hit the Abu Sifin church in densely populated Imbaba, a working-class district west of the Nile River, part of Giza governorate in Greater Cairo.
Hundreds gathered to pay their respects in and around the two Giza churches on Sunday evening where clergymen prayed for the victims.
Pallbearers pushed through crowds of weeping mourners who reached for the coffins, including that of a priest at the church, Father Abdel-Messih Bekhit.
The Egyptian Coptic Church and the health ministry reported 41 dead and 14 injured in the blaze before emergency services brought it under control.
Copts are the largest Christian community in the Middle East, making up at least 10 million of Egypt’s 103 million Muslim-majority population.
On Sunday morning, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said on his Facebook page that he had “mobilised all state services” in response. He later said he had “presented his condolences by phone” to Pope Tawadros II, the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church.
He also directed the Armed Forces Engineering Authority to “take over the reconstruction and renovation” of the church, the presidency said in a statement.
Source: Aljazeera