Explosion hits Egypt church during LIVE broadcast of worshippers

At least 38 people have been killed following two suspected suicide bombings at Coptic Christian services, Egypt's state television reported.



The first attack struck worshippers at a church in Tanta, outside Cairo. The second blast detonated outside the front doors of a church in Alexandria after three hero police officers prevented a suicide bomber from accessing the building.



According to General Tarek Atilya: 'The explosion took place in the front rows, near the altar, during the mass.'



Witness Nabil Nader said: 'I heard the blast and came running. I found people torn up... some people, only half of their bodies remained.'
More than 38 people have died in both attacks with in excess of 100 injuries.



A second blast happened outside a church in Alexandria killing 11 people and injuring a further 66, Egypt's health ministry has confirmed.



In the second blast, a suicide bomber approached the church and detonated his vest after being stopped by police.



Three officers died after they prevented the killer from getting into the church and causing greater bloodshed.



Coptic Pope Tawadros II had said Mass in Alexandria before the explosion.



ISIS has claimed responsibility for today's attacks.



Christians make up around 10 per cent of Egypt's population and have repeatedly been targeted by Islamic extremists.



The attacks took place on the Coptic Christian Palm Sunday, when the church in the Nile Delta town of Tanta was packed with worshippers.



Ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed confirmed the toll from the attack in an interview with CBC TV.



The state-run MENA news agency provided the same death toll and said 35 were wounded.



CBC showed footage from inside the church, where a large number of people gathered around what appeared to be lifeless, bloody bodies covered with papers.
A local ISIS affiliate claimed a suicide bombing at a church in Cairo in December that killed around 30 people, mostly women, as well as a string of killings in the restive Sinai Peninsula that caused hundreds of Christians to flee to safer areas of the country.



A militant group called Liwa al-Thawra claimed responsibility for an April 1 bomb attack targeting a police training center in Tanta, which wounded 16 people.
The group, believed to be linked to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, has mainly targeted security forces and distanced itself from attacks on Christians.



Pope Francis has decried a deadly attack on a Coptic church in Egypt during Palm Sunday celebrations, just weeks before his planned visit to Cairo.



The pontiff expressed his 'deep condolences to my brother, Pope Tawadros II, the Coptic church and all of the dear Egyptian nation', and said he was praying for the dead and wounded in the attack. Word of the bombing came as Francis himself was marking Palm Sunday in St. Peter's Square.



The pontiff asked God `to convert the hearts of those who spread terror, violence and death, and also the hearts of those who make, and traffic in, weapons'.



The pope's remarks on the church attack were handed to him on a piece of paper after he remembered the victims of the Stockholm attack Friday night.