At least 41 people were killed and about a dozen others hurt when a fire broke out at a church in greater Cairo, Egypt’s health ministry said.
Firefighters and ambulances were dispatched to Abo Sefein church in the Imbaba district of Giza on Sunday in response to a blaze the interior ministry said was traced to an electrical fault with an air-conditioning unit.
The health ministry said that 12 people were being treated in hospital for injuries. Most of the casualties were caused by smoke inhalation, according to an interior ministry statement.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi spoke to Pope Tawadros II, the head of the Coptic church, and extended his condolences, according to a statement from Sisi’s office.
