Fire kills 41 during mass in Cairo Copt church: officials

CAIRO: Greater than 40 individuals had been killed in a blaze that broke out throughout a Sunday mass in a Coptic Christian church in a suburb of Egypt’s capital Cairo, church officers mentioned. The blaze began for unknown causes on the Abu Sifine church within the capital’s northwestern, working-class district of Imbaba. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared on his Fb web page: “I’ve mobilized all state providers to make sure that all measures are taken.”

Hearth providers later mentioned the blaze had been introduced below management. The Egyptian Coptic Church reported “41 useless and 14 injured” citing “sources within the Ministry of Well being”, in a press release posted on its Fb web page. The prosecutor’s workplace mentioned it had opened an investigation and despatched a group to the scene to determine the reason for the blaze. Copts are the biggest Christian group within the Center East, making up not less than 10 million of Egypt’s 103 million individuals.

The minority has suffered assaults and complained of discrimination within the majority Muslim north African nation, the Arab world’s most populous. Copts have suffered lethal assaults by the hands of Islamists, significantly after Sisi overthrew former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, with church buildings, faculties and houses burnt down. Copts really feel they’ve been omitted of key state positions and deplored restrictive laws for the development of church buildings in comparison with that of mosques.

Sisi, the primary Egyptian president to attend the Coptic Christmas mass yearly, not too long ago appointed a Coptic decide to go the Constitutional Courtroom for the primary time in historical past. Sisi mentioned Sunday he had “offered his condolences by telephone” to Coptic Pope Tawadros II, who has been the top of Egypt’s Christian group since 2012. Unintended fires usually are not unusual within the sprawling megalopolis of Cairo, the place hundreds of thousands of Egyptians dwell in casual settlements. Egypt, with its usually dilapidated and poorly maintained infrastructure, has suffered a number of lethal fires lately. In March 2021, not less than 20 individuals died in a blaze in a textile manufacturing facility in an japanese suburb of Cairo. In 2020, two hospital fires claimed the lives of 14 COVID-19 sufferers.