CAIRO (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day, Egypt's Health Ministry said that there were 23 victims, while Egyptian media reported that up to 30 bus passengers could have been killed in the attack that saw two militants, in two vehicles, open fire on the bus.
"At the moment, 28 bodies of victims are in Minya's hospitals," Bedawi said on-air of the ONTV broadcaster.
According to the news website, up to 40 children participated in the Monday's excursion and only three of them were neither killed nor injured.
The assault took place in Minya province close to the St Samuel the Confessor Monastery. The Christians were reportedly traveling from Beni Suef. Egyptian security forces are currently carrying out a search operation in the area.
Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail told reporters, commenting on the attack, that terrorists would not be able to divide Egyptian society, and assured the Egyptian people that the government would continue to resist extremist ideology and terrorist attacks.
Egypt's Christian minority has repeatedly been targeted by armed groups in recent months. On May 9, deadly terror attacks in Coptic Orthodox churches in the country's northern cities of Tanta and Alexandria claimed the lives of dozens of people. Following the attacks, a three-month state of emergency was declared by Egypt's President Abdel Fattah Sisi.
