Egypt: Yesterday, Egypt mourned the loss of 41 of its sons in a horrific fire that destroyed the Abu Sefein Church in the Imbaba area of Giza Governorate during Sunday morning mass.
The deaths resulted from the thick smoke resulting from the fire and the stampede due to attempts to escape, among the participants in the mass, while the preliminary investigations of the Ministry of the Interior showed that the fire broke out in an air-conditioning device on the second floor of the church building, which includes a number of classrooms as a result of an electrical fault, which led to Emission of dense amounts of smoke.
President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi called Coptic Pope Tawadros II, stressing that “all state institutions have provided the necessary support to contain the effects of this painful incident.”
The Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Imam Ahmed Al-Tayeb, also mourned the victims of the fire and announced Al-Azhar’s readiness “to provide all aspects of support along with state institutions for the injured, and the willingness of Al-Azhar hospitals to receive the injured while providing psychological support to them.”
The state apparatus witnessed a state of alert as a large team of the Public Prosecution moved to the church to inspect it and start investigation procedures. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, accompanied by a number of ministers, visited the injured in hospitals, stressing that the government is providing all means of health care and support for the wounded and the victims’ families.
And he announced that he decided, with Minister of Solidarity Nevin Al-Qabbaj, “to spend 100,000 pounds for each victim, which will be given immediately to the families of the victims, in addition to an amount of up to 20 thousand pounds for the injuredfire in church
, according to the degree of their injury.”
