At least 41 people died and 45 were injured in a fire inside a church in the city of Giza, Egypt, during the celebration of a mass on Sunday (14). According to security officials interviewed by Reuters, most of the dead are children who were in a nursery.
The fire started at around 9 am (0400 GMT) due to an electrical outage as 5,000 people were gathering at the Coptic church of Abu Sifin, northwest of the capital, Cairo. The flames would then have blocked access, causing a stampede.
“The air conditioning in a classroom on the second floor of the building where the church is located broke down and released a large amount of smoke, which was the main cause of deaths and injuries,” the Interior Ministry said.
“People were gathering on the third and fourth floors, and we saw smoke coming from the second floor. People ran down the stairs and started falling on each other,” said Yasir Munir, a church member. “Then we heard a bang and sparks and fire coming out of the window,” he declared, saying he and his daughter were downstairs and managed to escape.
Giza, Egypt’s second largest city, is on the opposite side of the Nile from Cairo.
A man identified as Maher Murad said he lost a sister in the tragedy. “As soon as I was only 10 meters away from the church, I heard the sound of screaming and saw thick smoke,” he said. “After the firefighters put out the fire, I recognized my sister’s body. The bodies are all charred, and many of them are children, who were in a church nursery.”
It is not the first time that an electrical fire of this type has happened in Egypt. In late 2020, at least seven people died in a fire at a hospital treating Covid-19 patients. In Cairo, where millions of Egyptians live in slums, accidental fires are frequent.
The popular neighborhood of Imbaba is named after Saint Mercury of Caesarea, revered by the Copts, who are the largest Christian community in the Middle East, with around 10 to 15 million faithful, in a country with 103 million inhabitants.
On social media, Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi offered condolences to the victims’ families and said he had mobilized all state services to ensure that the necessary measures were implemented.
Sisi also claimed to have called Coptic Pope Tawadros II, who went on to lead Egypt’s Christian community in 2012. Since then, the Coptic Orthodox Church has shown itself more in the political arena.
Although numerous, Copts consider themselves marginalized in many public positions and complain about very strict legislation for building churches, which would be more liberal for mosques.
