Egypt tense after sectarian clashes

Egypt was tense today after sectarian violence claimed seven lives over the weekend, as President Muhammed Mursi promised to launch an immediate investigation into the bloodshed.
Police was deployed outside the cathedral in the central neighbourhood of Abbassiya, where two people were killed in clashes yesterday.
Mourners had packed the cathedral yesterday for prayers to honour four Copts who had been killed in sectarian clashes late Friday in a town north of the Egyptian capital that had also left one Muslim dead.
The number of policemen injured in the violent incidents at Abbassiyah Cathedral increased to 25, said a well-placed source at the Interior Ministry. Nine of them were injured with bird shot pellets, a security source told MENA news agency.

Egypt's leading opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei today said that national reconciliation is the only way out of the country's myriad problems.
Mursi has promised to launch an immediate investigation into the bloodshed.

Meanwhile, dozens of Copts held a protest on the stairs of Bibliotheca Alexandrina today to condemn yesterday's violence outside the Coptic church.
Twenty lawmakers demanded that Prime Minister Hisham Qandil and Interior Minister Muhammad Ibrahim be summoned over the incident.
Earlier, the Health Ministry said two persons were killed and 89 others injured in yesterday's clashes in front of the Cathedral in Abbassiyah.
West Cairo prosecutor Ahmed al-Baqli has ordered the summoning of the victims of the Abbassiya clashes to question them about the incidents.

Baqli also asked officials of the Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral to provide the prosecution with the video recordings taken by surveillance cameras outside the cathedral.
Prosecutor General Talaat Abdullah discussed with Baqli the outcome of initial investigations held into the clashes that erupted during the funeral service of the four Copts.