CAIRO: Thousands of people packed Cairo's main cathedral on Sunday for the funeral prayers of four Coptic Christians killed in sectarian clashes.

"Down, down with Brotherhood rule," the congregation chanted in reference to the ruling Muslim Brotherhood of President Mohamed Mursi. "Leave!" they chanted as they held up wooden crosses, television footage showed. One Muslim was also killed in the clashes which flared on Friday night in Al-Khusus, a poor area in Qalyubia governorate, after a Muslim in his 50s objected to children drawing a swastika on a religious institute.

The man insulted Christians and the cross, and an argument broke out with a young Christian man who was passing by, which escalated into a gun battle between the Muslims and the Christians in which assault rifles were used. A priest in Al-Khusus, Suryal Yunan, said 0n Saturday attackers torched "parts" of an Anglican church. [Link]