Hundreds of members of Egypt’s Christian minority Copt community gathered at a church in the city of Tanta on Easter Sunday to mourn those killed in a suicide bombing there a week earlier.Amid heavy security, worshippers filed past a flower-strewn memorial at the Mar Girgis church, with incense burning, and offered prayers.
Copts throughout Egypt, where they make up about 10 percent of the population of 92 million, have been attending Easter services in sombre mood following the bombings.
The government imposed a three-month state of emergency in the wake of the Palm Sunday attacks, but some in Tanta wondered why the authorities had not acted to prevent the attacks in the first place.
Nassir Munir, who came to mourn the dead, said: “We are paying our condolences to them and to their families and it is a bad situation.”
But he said authorities had only introduced security measures after the bombing, which killed 27 people at the Tanta church.
