Video causes deadly clash
2005-10-22 11:49
Cairo - At least three people have been killed and around 60 injured in violent clashes between Muslims and police in Alexandria amid mounting tensions in the Egyptian Mediterranean city over a Christian video considered anti-Islamic, the interior ministry said early on Saturday.
One of the victims, Mohammad Zakariya, died late on Friday of his injuries in hospital, the ministry said. Two others died shortly after midnight after the police opened fire on the Muslims who were demonstrating against the DVD by the Saint Girgis Church.
After police broke up an earlier demonstration on Friday that had gathered about 5 000 people, demonstrators grouped again outside the building again in the evening after breaking their Ramadan fast.
The violence intensified and spread after the first wounded protestor died, witnesses said.
Twenty policemen and sixty protestors were wounded, an interior ministry spokesperson said.
One police car and six other vehicles were burned in the clashes.
Fifty-three protestors had been arrested, the ministry said.
The Muslim protestors had earlier attacked the church and injured a passer-by, as they vented anger over the DVD release of a play produced by Saint Girgis two years ago they consider to be anti-Muslim.
The protests came three days after a man lightly wounded a nun with a knife at the entrance to the same church, and a man who came to her aid was stabbed in the back.
The play, performed by amateur actors, tells the story of a young Christian who converts to Islam and is exhorted by a sheikh to kill priests and destroy churches, according to the independent Al-Dustur paper.
Performances of the play had to be abandoned after it sparked a public outcry.
Church authorities have distanced themselves from the new recordings of the play.