At Least 22 Killed in Attack On Egypt’s Coptic Christian Cathedral
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Most of the victims are believed to be women and children.
Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters
At least 25 people were killed and 35 wounded on Sunday in Egypt’s main Coptic Christian cathedral in one of the deadliest attacks against Christians in Egypt in recent years. Egypt’s official news agency, MENA, said an attacker tossed a bomb into a chapel near the outer wall of St. Mark’s Cathedral, the seat of Egypt’s Orthodox Christian church. It is also the home of the church’s spiritual leader, Pope Tawadros II. The attack took place while mass was wrapping up, and most of the victims are thought to be women and children. Photos from the scene showed absolute horror, as men and women sobbed outside the church while police blocked it off to work inside. “I found bodies, many of them women, lying on the pews. It was a horrible scene,” a cathedral worker told the Associated Press. Another witness, Mariam Shenouda, told the AP that those left behind after the explosion were in complete shock, “scooping up people’s flesh off the floor.” No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.