By Agencies
Egyptian security forces have thwarted a suicide bomb attack on a church just outside of Cairo.
According to state news agency MENA, a militant wearing a suicide vest was on Saturday prevented from approaching a church in Qalyubiyah, a governorate north of Cairo, and he detonated the vest about 250 metres from the church, killing himself but no one else.
A spokesman for the health ministry told MENA that a foreign object had exploded leading to the death of one person but no injuries, without elaborating on whether it was an attempted attack on the church.
Media sources report that seven people have so been arrested over alleged involvement in the foiled bombing.
The attack was the latest directed at Egypt’s Christian minority, who make up around 10 per cent of the country’s 96 million people.
Christianity Today reports that Islamist militants have claimed several attacks on Egypt’s Christian minority in recent years, including two deadly bombings on Palm Sunday in April 2017 and a blast at Cairo’s largest Coptic cathedral in December 2016 that killed 28 people.
The most recent attack came last December, when a gunman fired on worshippers at a Coptic Orthodox church in a Cairo suburb, killing 11 in an attack claimed by Islamic State.
The country has fought an insurgency led by Islamic State in the Sinai Peninsula that has killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen since the Egyptian military overthrew President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in mid-2013 – although no official death toll has been released to date.
