PALM SUNDAY HORROR: Egypt hit by SECOND church blast in one day – suicide bomber kills 18
A SUICIDE bombing outside a church in Egypt has left at least 18 people dead – the second fatal explosion to hit the country on Palm Sunday.
By ROSS LOGAN
Express.co.uk
Sun, Apr 9, 2017
Just hours after a bombing rocked a Coptic church in Egypt’s Nile Delta, killing at least 25 people and injuring 60, a second blast at the front of St Mark’s church in Alexandria has led to more fatalities.
Egypt’s Ministry of Health said 11 people had died, including three police officers.
A further 35 people were injured.
The Ministry if Interior confirmed Pope Tawadros, the pope of Alexandria, had attended mass at Saint Mark’s Cathedral and was still in the building at the time of the explosion. He escaped unharmed.
The bombing brings today’s death toll in Egypt up to at least 36 with more than 100 injured.
It follows an earler explosion at St George’s church in the town of Tanta, as Coptic Christians were marking Palm Sunday – one of the holiest days in the Christian calendar.
ISIS has since claimed responsibility for both bombings – although those claims are yet to be verified.
Egypt’s Christian community – which makes up about 10 per cent of Egypt’s population – has felt increasingly insecure since Islamic State spread through Iraq and Syria in 2014, ruthlessly targeting religious minorities.
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