“If the bishop had finished saying mass two minutes earlier, the bloodbath would have been worse,” said Nermin Nabil, who was wounded in a harrowing Coptic church bombing in Egypt yesterday.
The New Year##s bombing killed 21 people and wounded 79 others, hitting Egypt##s Copts, the Middle East##s largest Christian community, after they were threatened by Al Qaeda just two months ago.
It triggered angry protests by Copts who clashed with riot police outside the bloodied Al Qiddissin (The Saints) church in the Sidi Bechr district of the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria.
Nabil, a 30-year-old mother who suffered a leg injury, said from her hospital bed that she had left the church “just two minutes before the bishop finished mass. Hundreds of people were still inside.”
The interior ministry said the bomb which was probably “carried by a suicide bomber who died among the crowd” was packed with pieces of metal to cause the maximum amount of harm.
A witness told private channel On-TV that he saw two men get out in a car park outside the church shortly after midnight, and the explosion happened immediately afterwards.
The attack was the first suicide bombing targeting Copts and it came just less than a year after six Christian worshippers were killed when they emerged from mass on Christmas Eve, which they celebrate on January 7.
Throughout the night worshippers who survived the attack carried victims on stretchers from the church to ambulances that waited to rush them to hospital under the gloom of darkness.
Outside the church bloodied items of clothes and a torn black handbag were scattered on the ground, blood stains were splattered inside the church and in an adjoining out-patient clinic.
Police investigators combed over the mangled remains of the destroyed car for clues that could help them zero in on the assailants, who had still not made themselves known several hours after the incident.
Hundreds of angry Christian youngsters hurled stones and bottles at police who retaliated by firing tear gas grenades and rubber coated bullets.
“O Mubarak, the hearts of the Copts are on fire,” they shouted, addressing President Hosni Mubarak. “Where is the government,” protesters shouted. One demonstrator brandished a large cross to which were attached bloody remnants of victims## clothing. “With our soul and our blood we will redeem the Holy Cross,” they chanted.
Mubarak went on state television to offer his condolences and pledged to “cut off the head of the snake, confront terrorism and defeat it”, saying the attack bore the hallmark of “foreign hands”.
He called on “children of Egypt – Copts and Muslims – to close ranks and confront the forces of terrorism and those who want to undermine the security, stability and unity of the children of the nation”.
But his words – and appeals for Muslims and Copts to unite amid reports that eight Muslims were among those hurt – apparently failed to contain the anger of the Copts. More than 15 hours later they were locked in clashes with riot police.
Nabil said “the security services do nothing” to protect the Christians. “They allowed the car to park in front of the church despite a ban from the authorities.” She was referring to stepped-up security measures set in place after the Al Qaeda affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq, issued threats against the Copts of Egypt at the end of October.
Those wounded in the bombing, their relatives, doctors and employees at the church-run clinic expressed their anger and despair.
A security source said that after the attack dozens of angry Christians had demonstrated outside a mosque across the street and that the door and windows were damaged.
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Gulf Daily News (abridged)