Egyptians gather outside the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Coptic Orthodox Church in Cairo on December 11, 2016 (AFP Photo/MOHAMED METEAB)

Cairo (AFP) - The Coptic Christians were in mid-prayer Sunday when the ear-splitting blast tore through their church in Egypt's capital, spraying shrapnel into icon-covered walls and blowing out the tiled roof. Sunday's bombing was among the deadliest attacks in recent memory to target Egypt's Coptic minority, which makes up around 10 percent of the country's population and strongly supported the el-Sissi-led military overthrow of Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president whose one year in office proved to be divisive. Relatives of a Christian woman who was killed in the bombing of Cairo’s main Coptic cathedral, carry her body to bury at the Mokattam Cemetery in Cairo, Egypt, on Monday (Reuters photo)

CAIRO — Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi said on Monday a suicide bomber carried out the attack that killed 24 people at Cairo's Coptic cathedral, the deadliest on the Christian minority in years. One of the four people arrested was a woman, Sisi said, and authorities were looking for two other suspects he did not identify. Speaking at a state funeral for the victims, Sisi noted four people had been detained, including a woman, and security forces were seeking two more people believed to be involved. At least 24 people were killed and 49 wounded when a bomb exploded in a chapel adjoining St Mark's Cathedral, Cairo's largest church and seat of the Coptic papacy, where security is normally tight. This would not be the first time that Isis has targeted the Christian sect, in February 2015, Isis circulated images of their militants executing 21 Coptic Christians who had been kidnapped from Sirte, Libya. Wooden coffins, each bearing a cross, were covered with the country's flag and lined up at the Saint Mary and Saint Athanasius Coptic Orthodox Church in the Nasr City district on Monday. Sisi, who said the bomber was a man wearing a suicide vest, said: "The attack brought us great pain but we will never be torn apart. Sunday's blast was the worst attack on the Coptic Christian community since a 2011 suicide bombing killed more than 20 worshippers outside a church in the coastal city of Alexandria. Following the deadly dispersal by security forces of two pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo in August 2013, at least 42 churches were attacked, as well as dozens of schools, houses and businesses belonging to Copts, according to Human Rights Watch.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claims responsibility for the Egyptian Coptic Church bombing in Cairo that claimed 25 lives on 11 December.