Three monks were subjected to a criminal assault inside our Coptic monastery,” the spokesman of the Coptic Orthodox Church said in statement posted on Facebook, without providing other details.
One of the three monks killed was a representative of the Coptic Diocese of South Africa.
An internal investigation has been launched, the statement added, and the Egyptian ambassador to Johannesburg, where the monastery is based, has been informed.
A South African police spokesperson said that authorities were investigating the murder of three priests at a church in Cullinan, a town near Pretoria.
All three victims were found with stab wounds while a fourth who survived alleged that he was hit by an iron rod before fleeing and hiding, said police spokesperson Colonel Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi in a statement.
“The motive (for the) murders is unknown at this stage,” he said, adding that the suspects “reportedly left the scene without taking any valuable item(s)”.