Four people, including two girls aged 8 and 12, died when gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on a wedding party outside a Coptic Christian church in Cairo Sunday evening. Bride Donya Amir Eissa and groom Mena Nashaat survived.
"We heard gunfire and ran outside to find people and children lying on the ground swimming in their blood," said Father Sawiris Boshra of the assault on Sunday night.
According to eyewitnesses, masked gunmen rode motorcycles past the church in the working-class district of Warraq around 9 p.m., just as three weddings were taking place.
Fahmy Azer Abboud, 75, sat Monday in the Church of the Virgin Mary, where gunmen the night before fired on a family wedding party with automatic weapons. His son, his wife's sister and two granddaughters, ages 8 and 12, were killed.
Thousands of Christians turned out for the funerals for the four victims, they carried large crosses into the church for the funeral.
The shooting has worsened the panic among Egypt's minority Coptic Christians. Coptic Christians, who make up 10 percent of Egypt's 85 million people, have generally coexisted peacefully with majority Sunni Muslims for centuries. However, the overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi by the military has been followed by the worst attacks on churches and Christian properties in years.
