At least 12 killed, 232 wounded in Egypt sectarian clashes

[News_Editor]

At least 12 killed, 232 wounded in Egypt sectarian clashes

2011-05-08 20:54:25 GMT+7 (ICT)

CAIRO (BNO NEWS) -- At least 12 people were killed and scores were injured in sectarian clashes in Egypt, state TV reported Sunday.

CNN reported that the violence began on Saturday after hundreds of conservative Islamists known as salafists gathered at the Saint Mena Coptic Orthodox Church in the Cairo suburb of Imbaba to demand the release of a Copt who has converted to Islam and is allegedly locked in the church. Witnesses said the two sides exchanged gunfire, sending people running for cover.

According to witnesses, the military and riot police fired shots in the air to separate both sides.

At least 232 people were wounded, while 190 were arrested. Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces issued a communiqué stating that those arrested will face military trials and warned of sectarian strife and its dangers to the country's stability.

Egypt's Prime Minister Essam Sharaf called for an emergency Cabinet meeting Sunday, and postponed a trip to Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to discuss the church attack.

Sectarian clashes between Muslims and Christian Copts have increased in the past year. A Coptic church in the town of Alexandria was bombed on New Year's Day, killing 23 people. Ten days later, a gunman killed a Christian man and wounded five others on a train in Egypt.

There are around 8 million Christian Copts in Egypt, which represent about 10 percent of the population.

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