Cairo Coptic Church fire kills 41, including 15 children

CAIRO, Egypt — A fire ripped by a packed Coptic Orthodox church throughout morning providers in Egypt’s capital on Sunday, shortly filling it with thick black smoke and killing 41 worshippers, including at the very least 15 children.

Several trapped congregants jumped from higher flooring of the Martyr Abu Sefein church to attempt to escape the extraordinary flames, witnesses stated. “Suffocation, suffocation, all of them dead,” stated a distraught witness, who solely gave a partial title, Abu Bishoy.

Sixteen individuals have been injured, including 4 policemen concerned within the rescue effort.

The reason behind the blaze on the church within the working-class neighborhood of Imbaba was not instantly recognized. An preliminary investigation pointed to {an electrical} short-circuit, in response to a police assertion.

Weeping households waited exterior for phrase about family who have been contained in the church and at close by hospitals the place the victims have been taken. Footage from the scene circulated on-line confirmed burned furnishings, including wood tables and chairs. Firefighters have been seen placing out the blaze whereas others carried victims to ambulances.

Witnesses stated there have been many children contained in the four-story constructing, which had two day care amenities.

“There are children, we didn’t know how to get to them,” said Abu Bishoy. “And we don’t know whose son this is, or whose daughter that is. Is this possible?”

A complete of 15 children have been killed within the fire, in response to Copts United, a news web site specializing in Christian news.

An inventory of victims obtained by The Associated Press stated 20 our bodies, including 10 children, have been taken to the Imbaba public hospital. Three have been siblings, twins aged 5 and a 3-year-old, it stated. The church bishop, Abdul Masih Bakhit, was additionally among the many lifeless on the hospital morgue.

Twenty-one our bodies have been taken to different hospitals.

Mousa Ibrahim, a spokesman for the Coptic Orthodox Church, informed the AP that 5-year-old triplets, their mom, grandmother and an aunt have been amongst these killed.

Witness Emad Hanna stated a church employee managed to get some children out of the church day care amenities.

“We went upstairs and found people dead. And we started to see from outside that the smoke was getting bigger, and people want to jump from the upper floor,” Hanna stated.

“We found the children,” some lifeless, some alive, he added.

The nation’s well being minister blamed the smoke and a stampede as individuals tried to flee the fire for inflicting the fatalities. It was one of many worst fire tragedies in Egypt lately.

The church is positioned in a slim road in probably the most densely populated neighborhoods in Cairo. Sunday is the primary working day of the week, and site visitors jams clog the streets in Imbama and surrounding areas within the morning.

Some family criticized what they stated have been delays within the arrival of ambulances and firefighters. “They came after people died. … They came after the church burned down,” shouted one girl standing exterior the smoldering church.

Health Minister Khaled Abdel-Ghafar countered that the primary ambulance arrived on the website two minutes after the fire was reported.

Fifteen firefighting autos have been dispatched to the scene to place out the flames whereas ambulances ferried casualties to close by hospitals, officers stated.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi spoke by cellphone with Coptic Christian Pope Tawadros II to supply his condolences, the president’s workplace stated. Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, Al-Azhar’s Grand Imam, additionally supplied condolences to the top of the Coptic church.

“I am closely following the developments of the tragic accident,” el-Sissi wrote on Facebook. “I directed all concerned state agencies and institutions to take all necessary measures, and immediately to deal with this accident and its effects.”

Abdel-Ghafar, the well being minister, stated in a press release that two of the injured have been discharged from a hospital whereas the others have been nonetheless being handled.

The Interior Ministry stated it acquired a report of the fire at 9 a.m. native time, and first responders discovered that the blaze had damaged out in an air conditioner on the constructing’s second flooring.

The ministry, which oversees police and firefighters, blamed {an electrical} short-circuit for the fire, which produced big quantities of smoke. Meanwhile, the nation’s chief prosecutor, Hamada el-Sawy, ordered an investigation and a staff of prosecutors have been dispatched to the church. He stated most victims died of smoke inhalation.

By Sunday afternoon, emergency providers stated they managed to place out the blaze and the prime minister and different senior authorities officers arrived to examine the positioning. Premier Mustafa Madbouly stated surviving victims and households of the lifeless would obtain funds as compensation and that the federal government would rebuild the church.

By late afternoon, caskets carrying the lifeless have been transferred in ambulances for pre-burial prayers at two church buildings within the close by Waraq neighborhood, as weeping ladies lined their path. Hundreds of mourners gathered on the church buildings for the funerals, earlier than taking the our bodies for burial in close by cemeteries.

Egypt’s Christians account for some 10% of the nation’s greater than 103 million individuals and have lengthy complained of discrimination by the nation’s Muslim majority.

Sunday’s blaze was one of many worst fire tragedies lately in Egypt, the place security requirements and fire laws are poorly enforced. In March final 12 months, a fire at a garment manufacturing unit close to Cairo killed at the very least 20 individuals and injured 24.