Egyptian Police Arrest Three Suspects in Connection With Shooting Outside Coptic Church
There have been three arrests connected with gunfire outside an Egyptian Church. The shooting outside the Coptic Church in southern Egypt on January 6 led to clashes later with the authorities.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
17:44 Mecca time, 14:44 GMT
Egypt holds Copt killing suspects
The shooting outside a church on Wednesday night sparked clashes the following day
Egyptian police have arrested three people over the fatal shooting of six Christian Copts and a security guard outside a church in the south of the country.
The men were detained on Friday as police searched an area of fields close to where the attack took place in Nagaa Hammadi, about 60km north of Luxor.
"As a result of the security services' efforts to arrest the criminals [behind] the killing of seven citizens in Nagaa Hammadi, on Friday morning Mohammed al-Kawmi, Kurshi Abul Haggag and Hindawi Hassan surrendered," an interior ministry statement said.
Al Jazeera's Amr El-Khaky, reporting from Luxor, said: "Police started their search immediately after the crime took place and they found the car which was used in that attack ... outside a vast area cultivated with sugar cane.
"It took time to search inch-by-inch until they managed to hunt them down."
The killing on Wednesday, Christmas Eve in the Christian Coptic calendar, sparked clashes between thousands of angry Copts and police.
Fighting erupted outside a hospital morgue where the bodies of the Christians killed the previous day were kept, the official said.
The six male churchgoers and the Muslim security guard were shot dead by three men in a car as the Christians left a late night mass, witnesses said.
Retaliation claims
Al Jazeera's El-Khaky said that one of the men arrested over the attack was "believed to be a relative of a Muslim girl who was allegedly raped last November".
"It is believed that this attack was in retaliation for the rape of the girl," he said.
"Now that he and his accomplices are in [police custody] the investigations are going to start to find out the real motives for the crime."
A Christian man has been arrested over the alleged rape of the girl and is in custody awaiting trial.
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