Armed security has been deployed outside a church South of Cairo on Saturday where funerals for victims of a militant attack are expected to be held.
Security tight ahead of funerals for Egyptian Christians killed by gunmen
Coptic Christian in the Egypt City of Minya prepared to bury their dead, a day after militants ambushed three buses carrying Christian pilgrims on their way to a remote desert.
Seven people where killed on Friday afternoon when gunmen opened fire on the two buses returning from a child’s baptism at a Coptic monastery in Minya, Egypt.
Another 18 people, including children, were wounded in the most serious attack on the minority in more than a year.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the ambush in Minya province in central Egypt, the militant group’s Amaq news agency said, without providing evidence of its involvement.
During the funeral service, a priest and members of the congregation prayed and chanted over a row of white coffins.
According to a list of the victims’ names released by the church, all but one of those killed were members of the same family.
#Egypt Copts bid farewell to victims of monastery attack https://t.co/nSztrrzrFz pic.twitter.com/CMgoXBLzUb— Yeni Şafak English (@yenisafakEN) November 3, 2018
The list reveals that a boy and a girl, ages 15 and 12 respectively, were among the dead.