Muslim Stopped From Attacking Christians in Egypt

CAIRO (Reuters) -- Guards stopped a Muslim from carrying out a knife attack on Christians at a church in Egypt on Tuesday, security sources said. Police arrested Mohammed Masoud Khalil after he was stopped by guards at the door of St. George's church in the southern Egyptian town of Qous, the sources said.Police said he was mentally ill.

The authorities blamed mental illness for a knife attack by a Muslim on Christians in Alexandria in April. The attacker, who killed one Christian and wounded five others at two churches, has been committed to a mental hospital.

Those stabbings provoked three days of Christian-Muslim street violence in which one Muslim was killed. Many Christians say the government used mental illness to cover up sectarian motives behind the attack.

Coptic Christians comprise between 5 and 10 percent of Egypt's 73 million people. The majority are Sunni Muslim. Relations between the two communities are usually peaceful, but there are sporadic outbreaks of violence.

In 1999, 22 people were killed in sectarian strife in southern Egypt.