CAIRO (CWNews.com) - Twenty people have been left dead after three days of fighting between Christians and Muslims in southern Egypt following a dispute between a shopkeeper and a customer.
All of the dead were in the village of el-Kusheh, said an Interior Ministry statement. Coptic Bishop Wissa, whose diocese includes the villages hit by the unrest, said Monday that the victims, all Christians, died during rampages by Muslim protesters.
The ministry said 44 people were injured and more than 20 buildings destroyed before security forces moved in to quell the riots.
El-Kusheh, with a large Christian population in the majority Muslim country, drew international attention when Christians said police had resorted to torture and other brutality during a 1988 murder investigation.
Bishop Wissa said a church and 50 homes, shops, and warehouses were burned and many looters were arrested.
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