that we see not only in the church in tanta, but also really throughout the country. we certainly see it and at the heart of it of course as always the suffering from civilians and in this particular case a coptic church in the northern part of the country. colonel, thanks very much. just to recap for our viewers, state media now reporting 21 people killed in this bomb attack. a bomb that went off inside the church on palm sunday just a few weeks before a papal visit to egypt. we ll have more on the breaking news coming up. energy is amazing. how we use it is only limited by our imagination. and at southern company we re building the future of energy, for you.
today on a training center, police training center. so you have this low level insurgency focusing on christians, but also the government itself. well, certainly it s a message also directed at the government. and by the way while you were speaking, we were getting new images in from a state television network of the aftermath of that attack and there was some sort of live broadcast going on during the that went dark as the explosives went off killing so many people. and you re seeing there people gathered what looks like the exit or the entrance ever the chur of the church, at least one individual on the ground. not sure whether they lost their of will or they were injured. and as so often is the case, the death toll will like police rise as well sadly there as we continue to follow this breaking news story out of egypt. you were representing tanta is an industrial town and there
insurgency in the northern part of sinai. it has targeted not only the cops, it has targeted the security forces, civilians, foreign nationals, hundreds of people have been killed. and the strategic goal of this particular level of insurgency is to really wage economic warfare. what has happened in egypt and people don t talk about it, the tourism industry has been decimated. el sisi administration faces serious economic and social problems as a result of the instability and insurgency itself. so this is a strategic attack not only get against the cop, it s against the very foundation of the el sisi administration. and as we continue to watch this video, we re playing it in a loop, this is some of the these are some of the images coming to us from tanta. this is the aftermath, it is chaotic, people just stunned and
pen. fredricka, these two bombs left dozens of people dead in egypt on palm sunday. now, the first bomb took place in tanta which is about 60 miles north of cairo. there were more than 2000 worshippers in the church from palm sunday. you tell from the pictures the suicide bomber, this has been claimed by isis, got very close to the front of the church. the front rows before blowing himself up. now, we understand the second explosion was in alexandria at the st. marks church where the pope of the church was inside participating in the mass when the bomb went off. fortunately it went off outside. in that case 16 people were killed. 41 wounded. as a result, the egyptian president has declared three
cairo. not the first time the coptic christian community has been targeted of course, it happened in december in cairo, 25 people were killed. the service of course was an important one, it is palm sunday. very important service for christians around the world on sunday. that means the church itself would have been packed with worshipp worshippers. there was a live broadcast streaming actually from inside the church and the moment the bomb went off, the signal was lost. and the carnage, this is the aftermath of that bomb attack, you see there are vehicles there stunned, angry and fearful crowds gathering outside of the church. tanta there the christian community there and across the country feeling extremely vulnerable on this day once again. speaking of people feeling vulnerable, civilians in syria in rebel-held areas, at least 16 were killed we understand in idlib. it is not known who dropped the