At least 41 people were killed and 14 were injured when a fire ravaged a church in the Egyptian city of Cairo on Sunday while worshippers were inside, according to the Coptic Church.
It was not immediately clear what started the fire at the Abu Sefein church in the working-class area of Imbaba.
A police statement said that the first investigation suggested an electrical short-circuit.
The deaths were attributed by the nation’s health minister to smoke and a stampede that occurred as people tried to escape the fire.
One of Egypt’s biggest fire catastrophes in recent memory occurred there.
Online videos were circulating of charred furniture, including wooden chairs and tables.
While others brought the injured to ambulances, firefighters were seen extinguishing the fire.
The casualty count was reported by the Coptic Church using health professionals as sources.
It said that a service was taking place when the fire started.
According to police, fifteen firefighting units were sent to the area to put out the fires while ambulances transported injured people to neighbouring hospitals.
According to the president’s office, President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi phoned Coptic Christian Pope Tawadros II to express his condolences.
El-Sissi said on Facebook, “I am attentively following the events of the unfortunate catastrophe.”
“I gave the go-ahead for all responsible state agencies and institutions to quickly deal with this disaster and its repercussions and take all required action.”
Two of the wounded were released from a hospital, according to a statement from Health Minister Khaled Abdel-Ghafar, while 12 others were still receiving medical care.
According to the Interior Ministry, the fire was discovered to have started in an air conditioner on the second level of the building at about 9 a.m. local time.
The ministry, which is in charge of the police and firemen, assigned the fire’s massive volume of smoke the cause: an electrical short-circuit.
Hamada el-Sawy, the nation’s top prosecutor, issued an investigative order and sent a team of prosecutors to the church.
The 10% of Christians in Egypt who make up the country’s total population of over 103 million have long complained of discrimination on the part of the Muslim majority.
One of the greatest fire catastrophes in recent memory occurred in Egypt on Sunday, a country with lax enforcement of fire safety rules.
A fire at a clothing factory outside of Cairo in March of last year resulted in at least 20 fatalities and 24 other injuries.