Swastika sparks deadly Egypt clash near Cairo

FIVE people are dead and six wounded after sectarian violence that has erupted north of Cairo.

Mideast Egypt Christians

FIVE people have been killed in sectarian violence that has erupted north of Cairo, four of them Christians.

Six others have been left wounded, officials say.

The clashes, which saw the use of firearms, flared on Friday night in Al-Khusus, a poor area in Egypt's Qalyubia governorate, after a Muslim in his 50s objected to children drawing a swastika on a religious institute.

The man insulted Christians and the cross, and an argument broke out with a young Christian man who was passing by, which escalated into a gun battle with assault rifles between the Muslims and the Christians.

"Five people were killed in the clashes, including four Christians. In addition to this, six others were wounded, at least two of whom were suffering gunshot wounds," a source told AFP.

An activist from the Coptic Maspero Youth Movement, Toni Sabri, also said by phone that "there are many wounded" from the Al-Mataraya Hospital, near to where the clashes took place.

A priest in Al-Khusus, Suryal Yunan, said attackers torched "parts" of an Anglican church, the official MENA news agency reported.

Muslims also set on fire a Christian home and ransacked a pharmacy owned by a Copt, a police official said.

A number of angry Muslim residents tried to surround the town's Mary Jirjis church, but the security presence in the area stopped them from doing so.

Both sides then lit tyres in the narrow streets where residents live in crowded slum housing.