Image shows mayhem outside the church in Tanta following the blast.

At least 15 people were killed and 42 injured following a bombing near a church in Egypt’s Tanta, north of Cairo, Al Arabiya News Channel reported on Sunday.

The blast struck as Egypt’s Coptic Christian community marked Palm Sunday

There was no immediate claim of responsibility and the cause of the blast was not yet known.

Coptic Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s population of 85 million. They have largely coexisted peacefully with the majority-Muslim public for centuries.

Last December, 25 people were killed and 49 wounded in an explosion that targeted the Cathedral of Saint Mark in the Abbasia district in Cairo – the city’s largest Coptic cathedral.