The Archbishop of Canterbury has described a bomb and gun attack in a crowded mosque in Egypt's North Sinai province, killing 235 people, as “terrible beyond words.”
Islamist militants detonated explosives and fired into a crowded al-Rawda mosque in the town of Bir al-Abed, near al-Arish, during Friday prayers.
It is the deadliest attack of its kind since an Islamist insurgency in the peninsula was stepped up in 2013.
Justin Welby tweeted earlier today: “ The attack on a mosque in #Sinai, #Egypt is terrible beyond words. We pray for all affected, for the Egyptian Government, and for peace and justice. We pray for all affected, for the Egyptian Government, and for peace and justice.”
The attackers, who travelled in four-wheel-drive vehicles, exploded bombs inside the mosque, then sprayed worshippers with gunfire. A military official said that a suicide bomber was involved in the attack.
The gunmen lingered at the scene even as emergency workers arrived to treat the injured, and opened fire on several ambulances, Reuters reports.
Local hospitals are said to be overwhelmed with at least 109 reported to be injured in the attack.
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi convened an emergency meeting of top security officials. He has declared three days of mourning.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for what is one of the deadliest militant attacks in modern Egyptian history.
Worshippers at the mosque were Sufi Muslims, who practice a form of Islam that some orthodox Muslims and Sunni extremists consider heretical. Islamic State has threatened and killed a number of Sufis in Bir al-Abd in recent months, but no group had yet targeted a place of worship, an unnamed Muslim cleric told the New York Times.
PICTURE: Muslim worshippers stand outside the al-Rawdah mosque after it came under attack by militants ©PA
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