A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a Coptic church in Egypt yesterday, killing at least 21 people and wounding 79 others in an attack President Hosni Mubarak said was the work of “foreign hands”.

There was no immediate claim, but Al-Qaeda has called for punishment of Egypt’s Copts, over claims that two priests’ wives they say had converted to Islam were being held by the church against their will.

The bombing in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria sparked fierce anger among Christians, who clashed with police and shouted slogans against the regime of the ageing president.

A health ministry official said 21 people were killed and 79 wounded, and the interior ministry said eight of those hurt were Muslims.

A witness had told private television On-TV he saw a car park outside the Al-Qiddissin (The Saints) church shortly after midnight, two men get out and the explosion happen almost immediately afterwards.

But the interior ministry ruled out the hypotheses of a car bomb, saying it was “probable that the bomb... was carried by a suicide bomber who died among the crowd.”

The device was packed with pieces of metal to cause the maximum amount of harm, it added.

And the circumstances of the explosion, “given the methods that currently prevail in terrorist activities at the global and regional level, clearly indicate” that the bombing was “planned and carried out by foreign elements”.

Mubarak echoed that, saying the bombing bore the hallmark “of foreign hands”.

In televised remarks, he referred to it as something that “is alien to us,” and pledged to “cut off the head of the snake, confront terrorism and defeat it”.

“All of Egypt is targeted. This blind terrorism does not differentiate between Copts and Muslims,” he said, urging people from both faiths to unite.

“You are terribly mistaken if you believe that you can hide from the punishment of the Egyptian people,” he added, addressing the still-unknown assailants.

Pope Benedict XVI, during New Year’s Mass, urged world leaders to defend Christians against abuse and intolerance.

“I once again launch a pressing appeal not to give in to discouragement and resignation,” said the pontiff.

Refaa al-Tahtawi, spokesman for Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam’s Cairo-based main institution of learning, denounced the attack and appealed for calm, as did a senior Coptic official, but to no avail.