Bomb spreads carnage through Coptic church in Egypt

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Coptic Christians were in mid-prayer Sunday, December 11 when the ear-splitting blast tore through their church in Egypt's capital, spraying shrapnel into icon-covered walls and blowing out the tiled roof, AFP reports.

Witnesses said the smoke then cleared to reveal a tangle of splintered pews and body parts.

"It was terrifying. Things were falling down on us. I couldn't get down from behind the altar because of the smoke," said church volunteer Tadros Zaki, 63.

"There were too many people. Destroyed, in pieces... people on top of people," said Romany, who rushed to the church to help after the bombing.

The health ministry said 23 people were killed and 49 wounded.

The focal point of the explosion at the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Church appeared to have been just inside the entrance, on the side where the women sat.

A woman's scarf, drenched in congealing blood, lay in the wreckage.

The stone recess above the door was peppered with shrapnel which also left holes in the marble floor. A pew that remained upright was soaked in blood.

Two nearby boxes, one that had been filled with written prayers left by worshippers and another that held a saint's relics, were destroyed.

Dazed priests paced the arcaded courtyard, pieces of stained glass from the church's windows crunching underfoot, as guards at the doors blocked a crush of journalists and concerned faithful.

One nun in a grey habit stared pensively at the wreckage.

"God will have a say in this," she decided.

Bishop Angaelos, the General Bishop for the Coptic Orthodox Church in Britain, told AFP by telephone that Saint Peter's church was especially popular with parishioners.