Bombings In Egypt: Malaysian Students Safe, Recall Anxious Moments

By Mohd Faizal Hassan and Muhammad Ammar Shafiq Hamzah KUALA LUMPUR, April 11 (Bernama) -- The sound of bomb explosions, the tremors from buildings and sight of columns of smoke and people running helter-skelter were some of the anxious moments experienced by Malaysian students in the bomb attacks on two Coptic Christian churches in Egypt yesterday, which killed 47 people and injured 137 others. In Alexandria, the Malaysian students contacted, described the incident which occurred at St Mark's Cathedral around noon on Sunday (6pm, Malaysian time) as horrific and shocking as the area had been known as peaceful and always a tourist draw. The other bomb attack struck earlier at St. George Church in the Nile Delta city of Tanta, north of Cairo and 130km southeast of Alexandria. Nurul Syafiqah Mohd Badri, a medical student at Alexandria University, said when the incident happened, she and her friends were resting in their rooms. "I ran out of my room when I was startled by a very loud explosion as the church is about 400 metres away from our building. When I looked out the window, there were clouds of dust. "When I looked down, the road was swarming with people including women, running and screaming. When we realised that it was a bomb explosion, we gathered and stayed in our rooms until calmness returned. "The security guards locked up the building and the management disallowed anyone to enter or exit the building until the situation was under full control," she told Bernama. The Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA)-sponsored student and the elder of two siblings, said classes went on as usual but the students were not encouraged to go out if there was nothing urgent to attend to. As her room was quite near the church, Nurul Shafiqah could hear cries of protest from a group that had gathered at the scene a few hours after the incident, but nothing untoward ensued. "They were at it (protesting) for four hours. They only stopped upon hearing the call for Asar prayers, while ambulances were still seen around the site of the incident," said Nurul Shafiqah who repeatedly expressed her gratefulness for being safe in the incident. Her classmate, Amir Zahin Al Mukmin Japar, 24, from Melaka, and who also stays in the same building, recalled that just after the bomb explosion, he dashed to the window and recorded on his mobile phone, the movement of ambulances below and people running about and screaming. He could not believe it that the road he took each day, namely Sezostres Street, had become a bloodied place and chaotic following the bomb explosion. "Oh, my God, I was so terrified as we have always been using that road.Traffic there came to a standstill with the drivers of the vehicles running helter-skelter after the bomb explosion," he said. Amir Zahin said about 50 MARA-sponsored students were staying in the building and they were all waiting for instruction from MARA, whether to return to Malaysia or remain in Alexandria. Another medical student from the same university, Muhammad Zikry Hamedi, 23, said following the incident, the MARA office in Egypt and Malaysian embassy in Cairo issued an advisory (via SMS) urging Malaysian students in Alexandria to be careful and to follow the advisory until the situation is back to normal. He said while classes went on as usual, they were advised not to go near St Mark Church and other churches in Alexandria. He added that at the moment, there were sufficient food and beverage for the students and the telecommunication lines were functioning as usual after the incident. Hanna Maisara Johari, 20, from the university's Faculty of Dentistry, said she and her friends who were staying in rented premises around the university, had not been going out much after the incident and were waiting for further information and instructions from the relevant parties. However, she voiced concern over whether the bomb attacks on the two churches could jeopardise relations between her Muslim and Christian classmates. "Honestly, the Muslims and Christians here are very close and good to each other. I just don't understand how the bomb incident could happen. "I hope the situation for us would not be as bad as during the Egyptian revolution (of 2011)," said Hanna Maisara, who also voiced concern over the possibility of the university examination being postponed following yesterday's (Monday) incident. The first bomb explosion in Tanta killed 29 people and injured 71 others while the incident in Alexandria took the lives of 18 people and injured 66 others. -- BERNAMA