SW News: A Coptic Orthodox priest was fatally stabbed in Alexandria, Egypt, on Thursday, April 7. Fifty-six-year-old Fr Arsanious Wadid succumbed to his injury sometime after the attack. According to the interior ministry, the man who stabbed him has been taken into custody.

An investigation has been launched to find the reason for the attack. Fr Arsanious had been serving at a parish church in Alexandria. Coptic Orthodox Patriarch Tawadros II expressed condolences over the death of the priest. Following the reports of the priest’s murder, Archbishop Angaelos, Coptic Orthodox archbishop of London, also expressed his pain, saying they were waiting “to see whether investigations rule this to be an ‘individual event’, or part of a known wider phenomenon.”

“In clerical attire in a public space with no one else attacked, it can be safely assumed that Fr Arsanious Wadeed was targeted as a priest,” the archbishop pointed out.

The Coptic Orthodox Church, which is believed to be established by St Mark the Evangelist, has around 15 million members. The Coptic community in Egypt is one of the most discriminated Christian communities in the world. According to Open Doors, “Christians are typically treated as second-class citizens” in the country.