Egypt's president says church attack was a suicide bombing

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said Monday that a suicide bomber caused the blast that killed 24 Christians during Sunday Mass at a Cairo chapel adjacent to St Mark's Cathedral, the seat of Egypt's ancient Coptic Orthodox Church.

It was among the deadliest attacks to ever target Egypt's Coptic minority, which makes up around 10 per cent of the country's population and strongly supported the military overthrow of an elected Islamist president in 2013, which was led by el-Sissi.

Since then, Islamic militants have carried out scores of attacks mainly targeting the security forces, while the government has waged a wide-scale crackdown on dissent.