CAIRO: Sectarian violence that erupted overnight north of Cairo killed five people, including four Christians, and left six other people wounded, an Egyptian security source said yesterday.

The clashes, which saw the use of firearms, flared on Friday night in Al-Khusus, a poor area in Qalyubia governorate, after a Muslim in his 50s objected to children drawing a swastika on a religious institute, the source told AFP.

The man insulted Christians and the cross, and an argument broke out with a young Christian man who was passing by, which escalated into a gunbattle with assault rifles between the Muslims and the Christians.

“Five people were killed in the clashes, four of them Christians. In addition to this, six others were wounded, at least two of whom were suffering gunshot wounds,” the source added.

An activist from the Coptic Maspero Youth Movement, Toni Sabri, told AFP by phone that “there are many wounded” from the Al-Mataraya Hospital, near to where the clashes took place. A priest in Al-Khusus, Suryal Yunan, said attackers torched “parts” of an Anglican church, the official MENA news agency reported.