A teenage demonstrator was killed and dozens injured on Wednesday as Coptic Christian protesters clashed with Egyptian police over denial of permission to open a new church, a security official said.
A security official told reporters a young male demonstrator was killed during the protests and that a senior police officer was among the injured. He was later identified as Makarios Gad Shukr, 19.
Violent confrontations between Muslims and Copts break out sporadically in the Arab world’s most populous country, sometimes over the construction of churches, but clashes between police and Christians are rare.
Hundreds of Copts hurled stones and firebombs at police throughout the morning in several locations in the Talibiya district of Cairo’s Giza governorate. Police fired tear gas at the protesters and threw rocks. The demonstrators were protesting against the governorate’s refusal to allow them to turn a community center into a church.
Prosecutor Abdel Magid Mahmud said in a statement that seven officers and 11 policemen were wounded in the violence. He said 133 protesters were arrested.
A health ministry official said 48 protesters were taken to hospital.
Some of the protesters were led away with blood on their faces, after police threw rocks at them from a bridge down the road from the contested church, witnesses said.
They said dozens of Muslim residents of Talibiya chanted anti-Coptic slogans and also threw rocks at the demonstrators from under a bridge on the ring road as police fired tear gas at the Copts.
The Coptic protesters chanted back: “Long live the crescent alongside the crucifix,” in reference to the Islamic and Christian symbols.
Riot police were later deployed to hold back the Muslims.
Father Mina, from a church near the proposed new chapel, said Shukr was shot in the neck during one of the demonstrations in front of the governorate headquarters in the morning.
Hundreds of Copts gathered at the neighboring church to complain about how they had been treated.
“People here feel very discriminated against. We can’t build the church. Why are they stopping us?” Samih Rashid asked.
In his weekly address, the head of the Coptic Church Pope Shenouda III denounced the use of force against the protesters.
“God gives authority to some people so they can give comfort to those under their rule, but authority should not be violently exercised,” he said.
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