The prosecution is looking into the case of the torching of a bus that belongs to and was parked in front of the church of the Holy Virgin in the town of Daqous in Mit Ghamr, Daqahliya, northeast of the Nile Delta. The fire consumed the 50-seat Mercedes bus which had been donated to the church by a member of the congregation; the flames raged to reach the windows of the old church. But the fire fighters were able to contain the fire before it worked more damage.
The culprits are as yet unknown.
According to Farah Wahba, public relations coordinator at Mit Ghamr bishopric, the fire started around dawn yesterday. At 5.00am, the ++qurbaan++ (host bread) baker and a cleaning woman who had both been working at the church during the night and were then heading home, saw a tuk-tuk and motorcycle parked in front of the church. Unknown men rushed to ride off in both vehicles as soon as they noticed the church staff coming out.
Mr Wahba told Watani that there was a coffeeshop on the other side of the road in front of the church, which had opened during the period of breakdown in security that followed the Arab Spring uprising in January 2011. The frequenters of the coffeeshop, he said, regularly skirmished with the church-goers.
Watani International
23 December 2014