Lost at the end of a dusty alley of Giza, the Coptic church Kordossa neighborhood seems strangely quiet Sunday, August 18, a few hours of Sunday mass. Simply push the heavy iron gate in a painting depicting the Archangel Michael to enter any anxiety that plagues the Christian minority in Egypt since the crushing of protests conducive to Islamist ousted president Mohamed Morsi.

The church is more than an empty shell, with arches and blackened ceiling show a violent fire. Some benches half charred were pushed into a corner of the building, the remains of religious robes and Arabic-language Bibles are visible among the ashes. The caretaker of the church, Reda Abdallah, shows team FRANCE 24 the extent of damage and returns to the course of the attack, which occurred on Aug. 14 , t last, at the same time gave the Egyptian forces storm the main camp to the pro-Morsi Rabaa mosque in Cairo.

"Islamiya, Islamiya" "We first heard the cries out … The cries of an angry crowd chanting" Islamiya, Islamiya! ' and chanting slogans against our pope [the Coptic Patriarch Tawadros II] and General Al-Sissi. There were about a thousand people, mostly young people from 20 to 25 years, but also some older people. Many of them were armed with sticks and knives, they came here directly after ransacked the local police, "recalls Reda Abdallah.

Faced with this hysterical crowd, the keeper had no choice but to escape through the back door. The locks of the outer portal did not take long face the attackers. Between 16:30 and 18 pm, they have methodically vandalized the entire site, setting fire to the church and the adjoining room parties, while scoring Islamist slogans on the walls outside. Three people were injured in the attack. Not a police officer came to investigate on the spot

The young Coptic Korollos Khalil attended the scene from the roof of his house, which adjoins one of the buildings burned. He also reviews the way his father was busy frantically to water the inside wall of the housing to prevent it from catching fire in turn. "I could not even touch the wall with my hand it was so hot!" Exclaims the child of eight years, still shocked by the violence of the attack.

His parents tried to alert the authorities. In vain.

"My husband and I called the police a hundred times. Sometimes the police said they were coming … but they never came, "says the mother of Korollos Khalil. The caretaker of the church confirmed that no police officer has visited the site to investigate between the date of the attack on 14 August, and the arrival of the team of FRANCE 24 , Aug. 18.

Abandoned to their fate, the Coptic Kordossa could not count on the solidarity of the immediate vicinity – predominantly Muslim. Elsam Ahmed, who lives 20 meters from the church, said he received two wounded Copts home. The man of fifty years described the attackers as "addicts, lowlifes, thieves took away fridges and everything they could find."

Despite the vocal support of the Patriarch Tawadros II General Al-Sissi, the Coptic Kerdassa fear being released by the police in the event of another attack pro-Morsi. "We are afraid for our children, our fate is in God's hands," says Reda Abdallah with a resigned air.