47 Die in Tent City Blaze at Coptic Festival in Egypt

A fire set off by sparks from a cooking booth swept through a city of tents housing thousands of Coptic Christians attending a religious festival, police said today. Forty-seven pilgrims were killed.

The victims, most of them children, either died in the blaze or were trampled to death in the rush to escape, a senior police official said.

The fire broke out late Tuesday in the tent city at the foot of the Al Muharraq Monastery in Al Qusiyyah, north of this southern provincial capital, authorities said.

The fire began when sparks from a makeshift food booth touched some tents, igniting them and setting off a chain reaction in which about three dozen butane lamps exploded, a police official said. He said the booth’s two owners, both Copts, were arrested.

Witnesses said monks quickly closed the monastery’s massive door when the fire broke out. This caused panic-stricken pilgrims, who initially dashed to the building for refuge, to turn back and rush to the gate of the fenced tent city.

“There was a big rush from the pilgrims toward the main gate of the camp. Some children fell and were trampled to death,” the police official said.

The police official said 26 children, 15 men and 6 women died in the blaze. Fifteen others were injured trying to escape.

The monastery, a 10-acre compound with 70 to 80 monks in residence, was not damaged.