Cairo Egypt: Six shot dead in Egyptian clashes

Cairo: At least six Coptic Christians were killed and 45 wounded by gunfire in religious clashes with Muslims in the Egyptian capital, Coptic priest told AFP on Wednesday.
"In our clinic bodies of six Copts, all of them shot," a local priest Sämann Ibrahim told AFP referring to the medical center attached to his church.
The clashes between Christians and Muslims erupted in a poor working class district of Moqattam the middle of the day on Tuesday when at least 1,000 Christians gathered in protest against the burning church last week.
Hospital official Tuesday night initially reported one person died.
"We also have 45 people who were wounded, they all, without exception, the victims of gunfire. Others who were injured were taken to other hospitals," said Ibrahim.
He said some Muslims in the crowd opened fire on demonstrators, adding that they also petrol-bombed the local homes and workplaces.
A few plastic recycling stores and warehouses storing cardboard boxes were burned.
Fighting erupted when dozens of Muslims were in Moqattam, populated by the Copts, who work as garbage collectors and that blocked the main north-south artery in the capital.
People threw rocks on both sides, and witnesses said soldiers at the scene shots in the air trying to disperse the crowd.