Cairo Cathedral Clashes Leave 21 Injured: Egypt Health Ministry

The injury toll from Sunday’s cathedral clashes in Cairo stand at 21, according to Egypt’s health ministry.

Clashes erupted on Sunday afternoon outside the main Coptic cathedral in Cairo’s Abbasiya district as hundreds of mourners held a funeral for victims of Saturday’s sectarian clashes in the capital’s Qalioubiya governorate.

After being pelted with stones, mourners responded by throwing stones back. Gunshots were heard during the subsequent clashes; some eyewitnesses confirmed that assailants used firearms.

The injury toll is expected to rise. As of 6pm Cairo time, clashes were still ongoing outside the cathedral, with Egyptian police continuing to fire teargas. One teargas canister was reportedly thrown inside the perimeter of the cathedral.

No deaths have been reported thus far.

Moheb Fanous, director of a nearby Coptic hospital in which the injured are being treated, told Al-Ahram’s Arabic-language news website that Beshoy Wasfy, a 20-year-old journalist for independent daily Al-Shorouk, had sustained “critical injuries” to his neck after having been hit with birdshot.

Wasfy is currently in intensive care, said Fanous.

Fanous added that university student Nader Samy was also in critical condition after having been shot through the lungs.

Ahram