A Christian is killed and five other injured in Upper Egypt, reports Haggag Al-Husseini. A man was killed and five injured during a fight in Tahna Al-Gabal village in Minya governorate. Police say the fight occurred after Father Metaaos Naguib Thabet, a priest at Marmina Al-Agaibi Church, refused to allow five Muslim men to pass along a narrow alley in a horse drawn vehicle because children were playing in the street. The young men were on their way to visit the grave of a relative who had died a week earlier. Police have detained four suspects — Fadl Mohamed Khaled (17), Azmi Mohamed Azmi (18), Seif Mohsen Seif (19) and his brother Kamel (22). A fifth, 17 year-old Al-Husseini Ramadan, remains at large. During the fight Fam Mary Khalaf was stabbed to death. Metaaos and his 73 year old father were wounded along with three others. The five men had intended to visit the cemetery in which 23-year-old Hassan Ramadan, who was killed in a quarry accident, had been buried. The fight broke out in a street inhabited by Copts. Anba Macarios, bishop of the Minya and Abu Qurqas, visited the wounded in hospital. Doctors say the injured are now in a stable condition. The violence is the latest in a spate of sectarian incidents that have broken out in Minya governorate in recent months. In Al-Karm village Christian homes were burned down when rumours were spread of a relationship between a Coptic man and a Muslim woman. Christian houses were also set on fire in Al-Loufi and Abu Yaacoub villages after claims some Copts were using their home as churches began to circulate.
