Egypt: A fire outbreak ripped through Abu Sefein church in Cairo, Egypt, during church service on Sunday morning.
According to officials, the unfortunate incident which killed over 41 worshipers, including at least 15 children occured while congregants worshipped in a crowded Coptic Orthodox church in the capital of Egypt.
Witnesses said, a number of trapped congregants jumped from upper floors of the Martyr Abu Sefein church to try to escape the intense flames.
“Suffocation, suffocation, all of them dead,” said a distraught witness, who only gave a partial name, Abu Bishoy.
Below is a video of the incident;
At least 16 other people were said to have been injured, including four police officers who were helping with the rescue effort.
READ ALSO: Nigerian Man Beaten To Death While Onlookers Watch In Italy
Witnesses said there were many children inside the four-story building that houses Abu Sefein church, which had two day care facilities.
“There are children, we didn’t know how to get to them,” said Abu Bishoy. “And we don’t know whose son this is, or whose daughter that is. Is this possible?”
A total of 15 children were killed in the fire, according to Copts United, a news website focusing on Christian news.
In a tweet, a Twitter user identified as Hany Ragy share a photo of three children who allegedly died in the fire outbreak. See his tweet below;
He wrote; “The triplets came to the world together, lived a short happy life as one, and left the world together today as victims of the horrendous church fire in Giza today….Egypt mourns.”
The cause of the blaze in the Abu Sefein church in the working-class neighbourhood of Imbaba was not immediately known. An initial investigation pointed to an electrical short-circuit, according to a police statement.
The country’s health minister blamed the smoke and a stampede as people attempted to flee the fire for causing the fatalities. It was one of the worst fire tragedies in Egypt in recent years.
In the latest development, a funeral was held in Egypt’s second-largest city Giza for the victims of the fire that swept through a Coptic Christian church during Mass, causing a stampede and killing at least 41 people, most of them children.
Watch video of the funeral below;
