The Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Central Giza reported that a fire broke out inside the Church of the Virgin Mary, in the Barak al-Khiyam area of Giza (Egypt), with no injuries. The incident occurred on Thursday, October 22, around six in the morning, and the perpetrator was arrested the same day, according to the account released by EWTN News.
According to the diocese, a man entered the church under the pretext of praying and was carrying a bottle of gasoline hidden in a bag. Once inside, he forced the door of a small chapel on the ground floor, set fire to several curtains, and damaged the wooden lecterns for the Gospels and the carpet. The Bishop of Central Giza, Theodosius, reviewed the security camera footage together with several priests and noted that the damage was limited.
For its part, Egypt’s Ministry of the Interior reported that security forces detained the suspect while he was sitting on a bench, without his upper-body clothing and uttering incoherent words. The department stated that the detainee suffers from mental disorders related to methamphetamine addiction and had previously been admitted to a psychiatric center. Legal proceedings were initiated, and the Public Prosecutor’s Office took charge of the investigation.
The camera footage shows the man entering with a plastic water bottle containing a white substance, without security personnel stopping him at the door. The accounts from the diocese and the Ministry differ regarding the nature of the liquid, which the former describes as gasoline and the latter as a white substance. The accused’s motives are part of the ongoing investigation.
The incident has reignited the debate over access controls in Christian churches in Egypt, where the Coptic community, the country’s largest, has suffered attacks of varying severity in recent decades. The information was initially released by ACI MENA, EWTN’s Arabic service, and later adapted by EWTN News in English.
In recent months, the Egyptian government has continued the process of regularizing Christian churches, which InfoVaticana reported when it announced that Egypt had legally recognized another 191 Christian churches, bringing the total to 3,804 church properties.