WITNESSES to Friday’s murderous attack on a Coptic Christian church in the Cairo suburb of Helwan painted a picture of Christian-Muslim unity yesterdayday, describing joint action against a gunman.

They made clear that it was residents and worshippers, not police, who kept the death toll from soaring even higher.

One man in particular, 53-year-old Muslim resident Salah el-Mougi, who pounced on the gunman as he was reloading his automatic rifle, could well have saved dozens of lives.