08-02-2025
Two killed in bus accident at monastery in Muqattam
On Friday 7 February, a bus accident at the monastery of St Simon the Tanner on Muqattam Hill in eastern Cairo left two Copts, a man and a woman, dead; and injured two others. The injured were rushed to hospital.
The accident occurred due to a malfunction n the bus's brakes. The bus had been carrying a group of Copts on a day trip to St Simon's in the garbage collector district in Muqattam. St Simon's is not a thriving monastery in the traditional sense; it is a conglomerate of rock-hewn churches—the smallest accommodates only a few worshippers whereas the larger is an amphitheater style church that can seat some 20,000–built mainly by the garbage collectors under the pastoral care of Fr Samaan Ibrahim (1941 – 2023) during the 1980s and 1990s.
Eyewitnesses to the recent accident say that the bus was parked on a ramp when something went wrong with the brakes, and it suddenly began sliding downhill. It is not clear what exactly happened with the brake sustem; an unconfirmed story has it that a few children had been playing in the bus and tampered with the hand break. As the bus uncontrollably slid down, it killed a man and a woman who could not get out of the way, and injured two others.
The police hastened to the scene, and investigations are ongoing.
Watani International
8 February 2025
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