The Interior Ministry released a statement on Friday in which it mentions details on the Coptic Minya Coptic bus attack, saying that the attacks led to the death of 26 Copts and that it took place on Friday morning.
The ministry added that while a bus that carried a number of Coptic citizens was passing in the desert road in Minya governorate, a number of anonymous militants who were driving a four wheel vehicles opened fire on it..
“Directly following the attack, a number of high-ranking security officials moved to the incident scene,” said the statement.
“The attack took place while the bus was heading to Bishop Samuel, located south of El-Edwa city in Minya governorate. The death toll is still rising,” the statement read.
In the early hours of Friday morning, a Health Ministry statement said that the number of deaths had reached 23 and injuries 25, in the attack that targeted a bus affiliated to a Coptic monastery in Minya.
Till now no group or entity declared its responsibility on the attacks, however it is believed that the Islamic State group is the perpetrator as it released several warnings and threats against Copts in Egypt.
The Minya bus attack came after nearly a month of a deadly two suicide bombings that targeted two churches in Egypt’s cities of Tanta and Alexandria, these attacks led to the death of nearly 46 people.
In the wake of Alexandria and Tanta attacks, Al-Sisi declared a state of emergency for three months in Egypt for the sake of eliminating terrorism.
