Clashes between Muslims and Christians in the centre of Cairo have left 51 people wounded, the health ministry said Sunday, as Coptic Christians pursued a sit-in protest against the violence.
“Most of the wounded suffer from fractures and bruises,” said health ministry official Ayman Ragab, quoted by the MENA news agency. The clashes broke out Saturday after an altercation between a young Muslim and Coptic Christians who have been staging a sit-in outside the state television building in Cairo since May 7, after sectarian unrest last week that left 15 dead, police said. The Muslim returned to the protest site with a group of friends and fired on the Christians with a hunting rifle, the sources said.
Clashes then erupted with rocks being thrown and a number of young Muslims arrived later and threw Molotov cocktails at the Christian protesters’ vehicles, police said. Last week’s clashes broke out after Muslims surrounded a church in Cairo demanding the handover of a woman they said Christians had detained after she converted to Islam and left her Christian husband to marry a Muslim. The Muslims also set fire to a second church.
