The mob then dispersed to side streets, and local residents, including the neighborhood’s Muslims, tried to put out the fire. At one point, they attempted to get into the closed mosque opposite the church to get water. But the youthful mob armed with knives blocked Mohammed and others in his group.
‘They told us keep the mosque out of it,” said Mohammed, who lives near the church. “They were thugs. The way they talk, they have no religious or political views.’
He said the firefighters and security arrived on the scene more than an hour later.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, angry residents stormed a six-story building near the St. Menas, saying Christians used it to shoot at Muslims.
‘They were shooting from the roof, and they killed Muslims,” said 18-year old Yehia Ramadan. “We won’t stand by idle.’
Flames were coming out of windows, and furniture were strewn along the sidewalks. The building appeared to be empty, but it was not clear when its residents fled.
Islamic clerics denounced the violence, sounding alarm bells at the escalating tension during the transitional period.
‘These events do not benefit either Muslim or Copts,’ Ahmed al-Tayyeb, the Sheik of al-Azhar told the daily Al-Ahram.
In the deadliest violence since Mubarak’s ouster, 13 were killed in pitched street battles in March after Muslims torched a church. That violence was also triggered by rumors of a love affair between a Muslim woman and a Christian man.
A New Year’s Eve suicide bombing outside a Coptic church in the port city of Alexandria killed 21 people, setting off days of protests. Egypt made some arrests but never charged anyone with the attack.

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