16 dead in Christian-Muslim clashes in Egypt

Police in the upper Egypt region where the unrest occurred had earlier said at least 10 people were killed on Sunday. 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 500 km 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. Sunday’s violence was a sequel to an incident on Friday night, when police said Muslims shot and wounded three Coptic Christians after a financial dispute between two merchants turned sour.