• An electrical fire broke out at the Coptic Abu Sifin church in Giza, Egypt.
• There may be children among the deceased.
• The actual cause of the fire is yet unknown.

After a fire broke out at a church in Egypt, dozens of people perished in the Coptic church fire, many of them were crushed in a hasty attempt to flee.

According to authorities, there are at least 41 fatalities and several injuries. There may be children among the deceased.

At the Coptic Abu Sifin church in Giza, where 5,000 people had gathered for Mass, an electrical fire started, according to security sources, Reuters.

According to them, the fire blocked an entry and led to a stampede.

According to medical documents cited by CNN, 18 children between the ages of 3 and 16 were killed.

The actual cause of the fire is yet unknown, according to the fire services. Father Farid Fahmy, a priest at a neighbouring church in the Imbaba neighbourhood, claimed to the AFP news agency that a short circuit was to blame.

“The power was out and they were using a generator,” he said. “When the power came back, it caused an overload.”

Since the fire began, worshippers have been recounting their moments.

“People were gathering on the third and fourth floor, and we saw smoke coming from the second floor. People rushed to go down the stairs and started falling on top of each other,” Yasir Munir told Reuters.

He added that he and his daughter were on the bottom floor and were able to flee after hearing  a bang and sparks and fire coming out of the window.”

“sincere condolences to the families of the innocent victims that have passed on to be with their Lord in one of his houses of worship”.  Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said.

He’s given the military the go-ahead to rebuild the church.

The prosecutor’s office announced that a team had been dispatched to the location to look into what started the fire.

Giza is a part of the Greater Cairo metropolis and is located directly over the Nile from Cairo.

Of Egypt’s 103 million citizens, at least 10 million are Coptic Christians.

Copts assert that they experience prejudice and have less influence on Egyptian public life than their relative numbers would indicate.

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