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16 killed in Christian-Muslim clashes in Egypt

CAIRO: Sixteen Coptic Christians were shot dead in a clashes with Muslims on Sunday in the southern Egyptian village of Kosheh, Bishop Wissa of the neighbouring village of al-Balyana said.

"The names of 16 Copts who were killed have been communicated to me" by the residents of Kosheh, Bishop Wissa told AFP when reached at his church by telephone from Cairo.

Police in the Upper Egypt region where the unrest occurred had earlier said at least 10 people were killed. Officials also reported a number of wounded.

Authorities imposed curfews on the town of Dar Es-Salam and the nearby village of Kosheh where the unrest flared earlier in the day, but the clampdown failed to halt the fighting, local officials said.

The day's first deaths were a Coptic Christian and his four-year-old daughter who were shot and killed during clashes in Kosheh, in Sohag province around 500 kilometres (300 miles) south of Cairo.

It was the second sectarian shoot-out in Kosheh in two days, the interior ministry said.

The unrest subsequently spread to Dar Es-Salam where chanting Muslims burned businesses owned by Copts in reprisal for the clashes in Kosheh, police told AFP.

They did not say how many demonstrators were involved. Several people from both communities in Dar Es-Salam and Kosheh have been arrested. AFP