Cairo: Egypt’s prime minister called an emergency cabinet meeting on Sunday after 10 people died in bloody clashes in a Cairo suburb over the conversion of a Christian woman to Islam.
The sectarian conflict on Saturday was Egypt’s worst since 13 people died in violence on March 9 sparked by a church burning and throws down a new challenge for generals ruling the country since the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak.
There was a brief burst of gunfire on Sunday in the neighborhood where the violence had taken place.
About 500 conservative Islamists known as Salafists massed outside the Saint Mina Church in the Cairo suburb of Imbaba on Saturday demanding Christians there hand over a woman they said had converted to Islam and was being held against her will.
The Salafists were joined by other Muslims who demanded access to the church to see if she was inside. Tensions flared, gunfire broke out and the two sides threw firebombs and stones.
Soldiers and police fired shots in the air and used teargas to separate the two sides but stone-throwing skirmishes went on through the night in streets near the church.
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