At least 41 people died and another 14 were injured in a fire registered this Sunday in a church located in the Imbaba area, southwest of Cairo.
“The sources of the Ministry of Health said that the dead reached 41 so far, while the injured are 14 people,” said the Coptic Church in a statement published on its official Facebook account and cited by the Spanish agency. Eph.
??| LAST MINUTE: At least 41 dead and 14 injured after a fire in a church in Cairo, Egypt. pic.twitter.com/DsDrkpkUE0
– Alert News ? (@Alerta_News_) August 14, 2022
Security sources told Eph According to initial investigations, the fire was caused by an electrical failure in the air conditioning unit on the second floor of the church building, which includes several classrooms. The event caused the emission of a thick amount of smoke that was the main cause of death.
The spokesman for the Ministry of Health, Hossam Abdelghaffar, indicated in a statement that the first call to the ambulance was given at 8:57 am (6:57 GMT) and the first ambulance arrived just two minutes after the alert.
The president of Egypt, Abdelfatah al Sisi, offered condolences to the families of the “innocent” victims in a note posted on his official Facebook account.
“I am closely following the developments of the tragic incident in the church (…) and have ordered all relevant state apparatuses and institutions to take all necessary measures, and immediately deal with this incident and its effects, and provide all the attention medical treatment to the wounded,” the Egyptian president said.
According to this source, the Copts are the largest and most prominent Christian community in Egypt, where they represent about 10 percent of the population of more than one hundred million inhabitants. It is also one of the most punished, since the community has been the victim of brutal attacks both in its temples and in other places in the Arab country, especially between 2016 and 2017.
With information from Eph.
