Death toll rises to 17, 40 injured in explosion at Saint Mark's Coptic Cathedral in Alexandria

Ahram Online , Sunday 9 Apr 2017

As rescuers scrambled to deal with the aftermath of this morning's deadly explosion at a church in Tanta, another bomb was reported in the Alexandria cathedral with rising fatalities and injuries

baba
File Photo: Pope Tawadros II, the pope of the Coptic Church of Egypt, walks to his office at St. Mark's Cathedral in Cairo, Egypt. Egypt state media said Sunday, April 9, 2017, that a blast had wounded people outside a church in Alexandria where the Coptic pope had earlier celebrated Palm Sunday. The Egyptian Health Ministry said Sunday that the blast in Alexandria killed several people and wounded tens of others, in a second Palm Sunday attack on Copts. (AP)

The death toll rose to 17 and the number of injured to 40 in an explosion at Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in the Manshiya district of Alexandria on Sunday, according to the Health Ministry.

A suicide bomber detonated an explosion outside the church, Angelious Izhaq, the secretary of Pope Tawadros, told ONTV.

Izhaq confirmed that the Pope, who is in Alexandria for Palm Sunday services, was unharmed.

Saint Mark's Cathedral is the historical seat of the Pope of Alexandria, the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church.

The IS group claimed responsibility, through their social media affiliate accounts, for Sunday's churches' explosions in Egypt, which left at least 36 dead and dozens injured in both Nile Delta's Tanta and the coastal city of Alexandria. 

 

Correction: Death toll was revised from 18 to 17 after official confirmation

Short link: