At least seven people have been killed and 14 injured in another attack on a bus of Coptic Christians travelling back from a monastery in Egypt, Reuters reports.
The attack reportedly took place at almost exactly the same location as the May 2017 attack by Islamist militants which left 28 dead. No group has yet claimed responsibility for this latest attack, which again targeted a bus full of Copts heading back from St. Samuel’s monastery in Minya.
Local contacts confirmed to the Christian charity Open Doors International that two church-owned buses were targeted – one big, one small.
“The big bus belonged to a church in Sohag. The driver managed to escape the scene and no-one in that bus got hurt. The second, smaller bus, came from a village in Minya and did not manage to escape. The terrorists stopped the bus and opened fire on the passengers,” said Fr. Abanoub Shehata, a priest in Maghagha diocese, Minya.
The injured have been taken to different hospitals in the area.
Hanaa Youssef Mikhael, who lost her husband in the 2017 bus attack, said: “I am very sad about what happened. And I am startled: How is it possible that this happened again?”
“Why were they not protected?” asked Emad Nasif, a deacon in a church in Minya. “There seems to be an indifference to the safety of the Christian minority.”
One of the “most wanted” Islamic extremists suspected of participation in that 2017 attack was recently captured by Libyan security forces.