Funerals held as Egyptians mourn 41 victims of Cairo Coptic church fire
- The Sunday morning blaze, blamed on an electrical fault, hit the Abu Sifin church in densely populated Imbaba
- Hundreds gathered to pay their respects in and around the two Giza churches where clergymen prayed for the victims
Funerals were held in two Cairo churches on Sunday evening for 41 victims of a fire that ripped through a Coptic Christian church during mass, forcing worshippers to jump out of windows.
The blaze, blamed on an electrical fault, hit the Abu Sifin church in densely populated Imbaba, a working class district west of the Nile River, part of Giza governorate in greater Cairo.
Hundreds gathered to pay their respects in and around the two Giza churches where clergymen prayed for the victims, according to Agence France-Presse correspondents.
Pallbearers pushed through crowds of weeping mourners who reached for the coffins, including that of a priest at the church, Father Abdel-Messih Bekhit.
The Egyptian Coptic Church and the health ministry reported 41 dead and 14 injured in the blaze before emergency services brought it under control.
Witnesses to the fire on Sunday morning described people rushing into the multistorey house of worship to save those trapped, but the rescuers were soon overwhelmed by heat and deadly smoke.
