One person was killed and more than 80 wounded in clashes at the Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in central Cairo on Sunday after a funeral service for four Egyptians killed in sectarian violence, state media said. The man killed on Sunday was identified by MENA as 30-year-old Mahrous Hana Tadros.Police fired tear gas to try to disperse the crowds but clashes continued late into the evening. MENA said 11 policemen were among the wounded.
Violence also broke out near a Coptic church in El Khusus north of Cairo, where four were killed late on Friday when members of both communities started shooting at each other. MENA said 12 people were wounded, and two apartments and a cafe set on fire by petrol bombs.
In Cairo, trouble erupted after hundreds of angry Copts attended the funeral service at St. Mark’s Cathedral for Friday’s killed Copts, chanting ‘With our blood and soul we will sacrifice ourselves for the cross.’
Some mourners also shouted slogans calling for the departure of President Mohammed Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood movement as the coffins were carried head-high into the church.
Mursi condemned the violence, telling Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II in a telephone call that any attack on the cathedral ‘is like an attack on me personally,’ MENA reported.