Blast At Egypt Church Kills 2 Dozen, Injures Half Ton

Two dozen people have been killed and more half ton wounded after a bomb exploded at a chapel adjacent to Egypt’s main Coptic Christian cathedral on Sunday.

The fresh attack came just two days after when a bomb killed six policemen in capital Cairo. A shadowy group called Hasm or Decisiveness and linked to Muslim Brotherhood claimed the assault.

As yet no group has claimed responsibility for the fresh attack that targeted Christians.

In 2011 too Christians were attacked on New Year’s Day by bombing at a church in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria. More than twenty people were killed then.

In 2013 churches and Christian property in southern Egypt were targeted too after the ouster of an Islamist president. Brotherhood supporters and ultraorthodox Salafi Muslims were blamed.

Christians in the Sinai Peninsula were earlier targeted by Islamic State group.

The Sunday’s attack was likely to deal a setback to the country’s struggle in regaining normalcy.

According to the official MENA news agency, a bomb was lobbed into a chapel adjacent to st Mark’s Cathedral.

Sunday was also marked as the birth of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.

A three-day state of mourning has been declared by President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.

A statement released by the president for the Egyptian leader said, “The pain felt by Egyptians now will not go to waste, but will instead result in an uncompromising decisiveness to hunt down and bring to trial whoever helped — through inciting, facilitating, participating or executing — in this heinous crime.”