An investigation has been opened in South Africa after the murder of three Coptic Orthodox monks attacked with knives in the church to which they belonged for reasons which have not yet been clarified, we learned on Wednesday to the police.
The clergy attached to a church in Cullinan, a small mining town located about 50 km northeast of the capital Pretoria, were killed on Tuesday, according to South African police.
“Three victims were found with stab wounds. A fourth person who survived claimed to have been hit with an iron bar before managing to flee and hide
,” police said.
The Coptic Orthodox Church of South Africa expressed
"deep anguish at a tragic incident"
on its Facebook page, calling the attack
"criminal"
.
The Egyptian ambassador to Johannesburg went to the monastery on Tuesday
“to monitor developments in the situation
,” said the Church, specifying on social networks that the three dead were Hegumen Takla El-Samuely, Yostos Ava Markos and Mina Ava Markos.
One of the most violent countries in the world
The circumstances of the case have not yet been clarified but no theft has been reported, the police stressed.
South Africa is one of the most violent countries in the world and places of worship are not spared from crime with incidents regularly denounced on social networks.
Police recorded nearly 84 murders per day between October and December, according to the latest official statistics.