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Egypt gunmen open fire on Coptic Christian wedding in Cairo | Egypt gunmen open fire on Coptic Christian wedding in Cairo |
(35 minutes later) | |
Three people, including a girl aged eight, died when gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on a wedding party outside a Coptic Christian church in Cairo. | |
At least nine others were wounded in the attack in Giza, officials said. | |
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. | There was no immediate claim of responsibility. |
Egypt's Coptic Christian community has been targeted by some Islamists who accuse the Church of backing the army's overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi in July. | Egypt's Coptic Christian community has been targeted by some Islamists who accuse the Church of backing the army's overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi in July. |
The unidentified attackers fired indiscriminately as people left the church. | |
A man and a girl were killed outside the church and a woman died on her way to hospital. | |
Coptic priest Thomas Daoud Ibrahim told Reuters he was inside the church when the gunfire erupted. | |
Another priest, Beshay Lotfi, told Egyptian media that the church had been left without a police guard since the end of June. | |
Christians make up at least 10% of the population in Egypt, or well over eight million people. | |
When the chief of the army, General Abdul Fattah al-Sisi went on television to announce that President Morsi had been removed from power, Pope Tawadros II appeared alongside him. | |
Pope Tawadros said that the "roadmap" mentioned by the general had been devised by honourable people, who had Egypt's best interests at heart. | |
Some Islamists took this as a sign that the Church had conspired in their leader's overthrow. |