Clashes in Egypt as church bombing kills 21

Sectarian anger has erupted in Egypt after a bomb attack outside a church left at least 21 people dead.

The blast hit Coptic Christian worshippers leaving a New Year’s service in the northern city of Alexandria.

First said to be a car bombing, it turned a midnight mass into a massacre. More than 40 people were injured.

Coptic Christians raged on the streets in protest.

Clashes with Muslims and police were reported as was an attack on a nearby mosque.

Egypt’s Interior Ministry said a foreign-backed suicide attacker may have been behind the explosion.

Christian eyewitness Victor Farag believes the bombers must have pre-arranged the attack with locals.

“Al Qaeda members won’t come from Iraq,” he said. “Here, there are many people working for al Qaeda.”

The al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq group threatened Egypt’s Coptic Church in November, after claiming it carried out a deadly church bombing in Baghdad.

Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak has urged the country’s Christians and Muslims to unite and confront “terrorism.”

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