An electrical fire broke out at a Coptic Christian church outside of Cairo, Egypt, on Sunday, killing at least 41 congregants, including “mostly children” gathered inside the house of worship for Mass, Reuters reported Monday.

A fire started inside the Abu Sifin church in the city of Giza, which is located a few miles west of Cairo, Egypt’s national capital, around 9:00 a.m. on August 14. An estimated 1,000 people were gathered inside the multi-story building when an air conditioning unit on the church’s second floor reportedly malfunctioned and ignited, sparking a fire that spurred hundreds of people to push toward the building’s stairwells and exits. The stampede’s flow out of the church was partially blocked by the fire, which cut off one of the building’s main portals, two sources told Reuters on Sunday.

“People were gathering on the third and fourth floor, and we saw smoke coming from the second floor. People rushed to go down the stairs and started falling on top of each other,” an Abu Sifin worshipper and eyewitness named Yasir Munir told the news agency.

“Then we heard a bang and sparks and fire coming out of the window,” he said, noting he was on the ground floor at the time with his daughter and was able to escape.

Maher Murad told Reuters he dropped his sister off at Abu Sifin shortly before the fire ignited.

“As soon as I got away from the church by only 10 metres, I heard the sound of screaming and saw thick smoke,” he recounted.

“After the firefighters doused the fire, I recognised my sister’s body. The bodies were all charred, and many of them are children who were in a nursery room in the church,” he revealed.

“More than a dozen” of the fire’s victims “were children,” Agence France-Presse (AFP) noted on August 15.

The website of Egypt Today magazine reported on August 14 that an additional 55 people were “transferred to several hospitals” for treatment of injuries sustained during the blaze.

Egypt’s Interior Ministry said in a press release that “smoke inhalation was the main cause of death” for the fire’s victims. Egypt’s cabinet on Monday assured the families of people who died in the incident that they would “receive 100,000 Egyptian pounds ($5,220),” according to Reuters.

Emergency personnel work at the site of a fire at the Abu Sefein church that has killed over 40 people and injured at least 14 others, in the densely populated neighborhood of Imbaba, Cairo Egypt, Sunday, Aug. 14, 2022. The church said the fire broke out while a service was underway. The cause of the blaze was not immediately known but police said an initial investigation blamed an electrical short-circuit. (AP Photo/Mohamed Salah)

“I offer my sincere condolences to the families of the innocent victims that have passed on to be with their Lord in one of his houses of worship,” Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi wrote in a statement.

“Al-Sisi spoke with the Coptic Pope and directed the rebuilding of the church to be overseen by Egypt’s engineering authority,” AFP reported on Monday.

“Christian communities have regularly complained that the rebuilding of churches after fires are often delayed due to bureaucratic hurdles and discrimination towards the Coptic minority, which makes up some 10 percent of Egypt’s 100 million people,” the news agency observed.

Egypt is a majority Muslim country. An estimated 90 percent of Egypt’s population follows Sunni Islam.

“Islam is the religion of the state … and the principles of Islamic sharia are the main sources of legislation,” according to Egypt’s constitution.

“Approximately 90 percent of Christians [in Egypt] belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church, according to Christian leaders,” the U.S. State Department reported in May 2021.

A mass funeral for the casualties of the Abu Sifin church fire was held late on the night of August 14 in Giza.