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I didn't want to report on this story when it first broke because there wasn't enough immediate information and early reports are notorious for their inaccuracy.

But some of the details of this incident appear to be sticking.

From what the media is saying, a young off-duty police officer was aboard a train and opened fire on Coptic passengers. His victims appear to have been elderly and/or women and there were initial reports that the gunman had checked the religious identities of his victims before opening fire.

The current report, from the AFP, quotes a Bishop who is saying that the gunman now yelled Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) as he gunned down his victims.

The reports also all say that the officer fled the scene and was arrested a short time later.

If all the reports are true - and they seem likely given his victims were women and the elderly, as opposed to young men he may have gotten into an altercation with - then it appears that this is another religiously based attack against Egypt's Christian population.

We'll see how this story pans out in the coming hours....

Unfortunately, the report also says Copts responded to the shooting by rioting and throwing stones at police officers. If we've learned nothing else, it's that violent street protests in Egypt cross even the religious divide.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/ar ... fa1596.521

The elderly copt was an islamophobe, it does not count in Al Shafique stats.