Church Guard Stabbed in Alexandria, Egypt

ICC Note:

On Saturday, a 24-year-old male law school graduate attacked a church guard with a knife outside of Al-Qiddisain Church in Alexandria, Egypt. According to the security camera footage, the attacker tried to enter the church but the guard called him back. At that point, the attacker grabbed a knife and slashed the guard’s face. After the attacker was subdued, authorities searched the man and said that he wasn’t carrying anything illegal. This attack is yet another example of Coptic Christian insecurity in Egypt. Church bombings, bus attacks, and the El-Arish killings are a few of the attacks endured by Egypt’s minority Christian population. Government intervention is minimal and doesn’t appear to be developing creative strategies to protect minority communities.

07/17/2017 Egypt (Egypt Independent) – A security guard was wounded Saturday at a church in Alexandria after a man attacked him with a knife, said the Egyptian Interior Ministry in a statement.

The 24-year-old male perpetrator, an unemployed law school graduate, attacked the 47-year-old guard with a knife on the neck after the latter questioned his reasons for going into Al-Qiddisain Church in Alexandria, the statement said.

The police are currently interrogating the assailant, probing into the accident and the motives behind it, saying the young man did not have anything else harmful or illegal in his possession.

CCTV footage of the incident showed a man wearing earphones with a bag trying to enter the church when he was called back by a guard who asked to check the bag.

The man took out a knife and slashed the face of the guard, who recovered quickly to subdue his attacker with the help of others

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