New electrical fire breaks out at church in Egypt days after deadly Cairo blaze

1 / 2
Egypt’s Interior Ministry said firefighters arrived at the scene within six minutes of receiving an alert at the Anba Bishoy Church in Minya governorate. (@_Elshiekh_Mina)
2 / 2
Four ambulances were sent to the site of a fire that broke out in Anba Bishoy church in Egypt’s Minya governorate on Tuesday, the Health Ministry said. (@_Elshiekh_Mina)
Short Url
Updated 17 August 2022
Follow

New electrical fire breaks out at church in Egypt days after deadly Cairo blaze

  • The fire broke out at a closed hall in the church and was caused by a short circuit, Egypt’s interior ministry said
  • A person was treated on the scene for suffocation but did not require hospital treatment

CAIRO: Another electrical fire broke out in a church in Egypt on Tuesday, two days after 41 people died in a church blaze in Cairo.
One person was treated for smoke inhalation after the new fire broke out in a closed hall at the Anba Bishoy Church in Minya governorate. There were no fatalities.
“Immediately, the civil protection forces moved and were able to control the fire and put it out without it causing any loss of life,” the Interior Ministry said. Ambulances arrived at the scene within six minutes of receiving an alert at 2:30 p.m. and remained until the the area was deemed safe.
The fire was caused by an electrical short circuit, the ministry said. It came after Sunday’s deadly electrical blaze at the Abu Sefein Coptic Church in the Imbaba district of Cairo.

HIGHLIGHTS

• One person was treated for smoke inhalation after the new fire broke out in a closed hall at the Anba Bishoy Church in Minya governorate.

• Mourners attended a memorial service on Tuesday for the 41 victims, at least 10 of whom were children under 16, according to a list from just one hospital.

• Hundreds attended another third-day service in a nearby church for Father Abd Al-Messih Bekheit of the Abu Sefein Church, who died trying to save members of the congregation.

Mourners attended a memorial service on Tuesday for the 41 victims, at least 10 of whom were children under 16, according to a list from just one hospital.
Coptic Bishop Martyros led a “third day” service in the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in central Cairo to honor the souls of the dead. “The entire country is ailing,” the bishop told the bereaved, two days after the blaze devastated Egypt’s 10-million Coptic community, the Middle East’s largest Christian population.
Among those killed were six members of the same family, said one mourner, Sandy George.
“My aunt Magda and her daughters, Merna and Irina, and Irina’s three kids died of asphyxiation,” George said. Irina’s children who were killed were five-year-old twins Barthinia and Mariam and their brother Ibram, aged four.
Also killed were five-year-old triplets Mehrael, Youssef and Filopateer Bassem Amir, according to the hospital list.
Hundreds attended another third-day service in a nearby church for Father Abd Al-Messih Bekheit of the Abu Sefein Church, who died trying to save members of the congregation.

 


Take back and prosecute your jailed Daesh militants, Iraq tells Europe

Updated 24 January 2026
Follow

Take back and prosecute your jailed Daesh militants, Iraq tells Europe

RAQQA: Baghdad on Friday urged European states to repatriate and prosecute their citizens who fought for Daesh, and who are now being moved to Iraq from detention camps in Syria.

Europeans were among 150 Daesh prisoners transferred so far by the US military from Kurdish custody in Syria. They were among an estimated 7,000 militants due to be moved across the border to Iraq as the Kurdish-led force that has held them for years relinquishes swaths of territory to the advancing Syrian army.
In a telephone call on Friday with French President Emmanuel Macron, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani said European countries should take back and prosecute their nationals.
An Iraqi security official said the 150 so far transferred to Iraq were “all leaders of the Daesh group, and some of the most notorious criminals.” They included “Europeans, Asians, Arabs and Iraqis,” he said.
Another Iraqi security source said the group comprised “85 Iraqis and 65 others of various nationalities, including Europeans, Sudanese, Somalis, and people from the Caucasus region.”
They all took part in Daesh operations in Iraq, he said, and were now being held at a prison in Baghdad.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that “non-Iraqi terrorists will be in Iraq temporarily.”
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces jailed thousands of militant fighters and detained tens of thousands of their relatives in camps as it pushed out Daesh in 2019 after five years of fighting.