Two attacks on Alexandria St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral and St. George church in Tanta, a city about 80 miles away, left 44 people dead and more than 100 injured, Al-Arabiya reported.
In Tanta, Mohammed Ahmad Hassan, a Tanta resident, said loudspeakers were used to call on people in the city to head to mosques and donate blood to help those injured by the attack.
The call came bloods stocks at the hospitals were beginning to run out.
Hassan added that hundreds of blood bags were being delivered to blood banks and the General Hospital where the injured were being treated.
Outraged Egyptians posted messages of solidarity with members of the embattled religious minority on social media, using a hashtag saying “your terrorism brings us together.”
Meanwhile, police officer Imad al-Rekaibi was called a hero for preventing a suicide bomber from entering St. Mark’s Church.
The suspect, equipped with a vest made of bombs, detonated the device outside the Alexandria church, church official Kamil Sadiq Sawiras told the New York Times on Sunday.
A second officer and local police chief Adel El-Rakiby also lost their lives in the blast that killed 13.
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