The death toll in a bomb attack on a packed mosque in
Egypt’s restive North Sinai province has risen to 235. Gunmen attacked set off
a bomb, killing at least 235 people in one of the country’s deadliest attacks
in recent memory, state media reported.
A bomb explosion ripped through the Rawda mosque roughly 40
kilometres west of the North Sinai capital of El-Arish before gunmen opened
fire on the worshippers gathered for weekly Friday prayers, officials said.
Witnesses said the assailants had surrounded the mosque with
all-terrain vehicles then planted a bomb outside.
The gunmen then mowed down the panicked worshippers as they
attempted to flee and used the congregants’ vehicles they had set alight to
block routes to the mosque.
State television reported at least 184 people were killed
and 125 wounded in the attack, which is unprecedented in a four-year insurgency
by Islamist extremist groups.
Egypt’s presidency declared three days of mourning, state
television reported, as President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met his security
ministers to follow developments.
Ahmed Abul Gheit, head of the Arab League which is based in
Cairo, condemned the “terrifying crime which again shows that Islam is innocent
of those who follow extremist terrorist ideology,” his spokesman said in a
statement.
APF
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