Official source refutes reports on alleged police-Copt showdown

An Egyptian official source Thursday dismissed as baseless claims that 220 Egyptian Christians had been injured during an alleged confrontation with police in Cairo on Wednesday.

The reports circulated in Washington alleged that the Egyptian police had fired rubber bullets against Copts demonstrating inside the compound of a big cathedral in Cairo." The source told repoters.

He denied claims that a demonstration had been staged to protest purported discrimination against Copts. He added that some Copts had hurled rocks at police from inside the cathedral, an act that had sparked off minor clashes in which 25 people, mostly policemen, had been injured.

The source denounced a call by Chief of the American Copts Association Michel Munir and his followers for a world probe into an alleged government prejudice against Copts.

"All what has been propagated by these circles is baseless and reeks of ill intentions and gross lies," added the source.