At Least 22 Killed in Bomb Attack on Coptic Cathedral

At least 22 people were killed and 35 more injured in an explosion at St Mark’s Cathedral in Cairo, only days after six were killed near the pyramids.

Bodies are checked after Friday’s bomb attack that killed six at a police checkpoint. (Photo: Stringer/AFP/Getty Images)

An explosion at Cairo’s Coptic Cathedral killed at least 22 and injured 35 others. No group has yet taken responsibility for the attack.

St Mark’s Cathedral is the headquarters of the Coptic Church in Egypt. Pope Tawadros II, who leads the church, resides there. The explosion also hit St. Peter’s Church in the same complex.

Cairo’s security chief Khalid Abdel Aal inspected the scene, according to local media reports.

The explosion followed a bomb attack on Friday which killed six policemen near the pyramids at Giza. Three police officers and four civilians were also reportedly injured in the attack, which took place when a bomb placed in a bin exploded.

The Hasm movement, which is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Lter in the evening a bomb killed one civilian and injured three policemen in the Kafr El Sheikh governorate in the north of Egypt. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Egypt is fighting an insurgency by a Sinai peninsula-based branch of the Islamic State and splinter groups from the Muslim Brotherhood.

Between August and November there were five terrorist attacks in Cairo and splinter groups from the Muslim Brotherhood, including the Hasm movement, claimed responsibility. The attacks included the murder of Brigadier-General Adel Ragaie, the commander of the Ninth Armored Division on October 22. A senior judge, who was one of those officiating at the trial of Muslim Brotherhood president of Egypt Mohammed Morsi, was also targeted for assassination.