The alleged perpetrators and other Christians took shelter inside a Coptic church, Osman said.
CNN: Official: 5 killed as Muslims, Christians clash in Egypt
These include migrant workers from Egypt, where Coptic Christians are the biggest religious minority.
Unlike the Middle East's other dwindling Christian communities, the 1, 700-year-old Coptic church remains vibrant.
Many of its pharaonic, Coptic Christian, Islamic and other artefacts have spent years in storage in the basement.
That honor goes to His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, the 118th pope of the Coptic Church of Egypt.
But two of Egypt's 31 cabinet ministers are Coptic, as are many of the country's more prominent businessmen.
Coptic Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt's estimated 90 million people.
Ethiopia's Orthodox Church used to be part of Egypt's Coptic Christian Church, but got its own patriarch in 1959.
BBC: New leader of The Ethiopian Orthodox Church Abune Mathias
Mr Morsi denounced the violence in a phone call to Pope Tawadros II, the head of the Coptic Christian Church.
However, on the streets of Alexandria and Cairo, the crowds of Coptic protesters have been in no mood to hold hands.
Members of Egypt's 10% Coptic Christian community show growing discomfort with the 87-year-old Pope Shenouda, a staunch supporter of Mr Mubarak.
The German interior ministry says members of the Coptic church expressed their concerns even before the New Year's Day suicide attack.
Perhaps most annoying to Egypt's prickly security agents, Mr Ibrahim was outspoken about the need to air the grievances of Egypt's 5m Coptic Christians.
In 1998, the town sprang briefly out of obscurity when local police arrested some 500 of its 40, 000, mostly Coptic, residents.
The leader of Egypt's Coptic Christians has accused the country's president of "negligence" following deadly clashes outside the main cathedral in Cairo.
BBC: Egypt: Pope Tawadros rebukes Morsi over Cathedral clash
Wagner was a sterling linguist who said his post-examination project was to learn Coptic as a prelude to the study of Egyptian.
In one case there were rumours that a woman who had converted from Christianity to Islam had been abducted by her Coptic family.
It was a brief moment of respite for the Coptic community, which is deeply concerned about the growing power of the Islamists in Egypt.
Ms Eweida, a Coptic Christian from Twickenham in south-west London, was asked to leave her job in 2006 after refusing to remove her cross.
On Saturday, Mr Morsi brought forward the start of the parliamentary elections to 22 April, reportedly Coptic Christians complained that it clashed with Easter festivities.
Two Egyptians have been killed and two injured in an apparent attack on a Coptic church building near the Libyan city of Misrata, officials say.
According to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, Egypt's population as of 2010 included an estimated 77 million Muslims and 4 million Coptic Christians.
CNN: Official: 5 killed as Muslims, Christians clash in Egypt
But the broadcasters believed they were talking to Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a California Coptic Egyptian who is believed to be the filmmaker behind the propaganda video.
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Another point of contention is the role of Sharia and how it will affect social and personal freedoms and minority rights, specifically Egypt's Coptic Christian population.
BBC: Egypt opposition faces reality of rising Islamist power
Some would go further, arguing that it is the Egyptian government, rather than popular anti-Christian feeling which has played a crucial role in fuelling violence against the Coptic community.
He was seen as a leader who did his best to protect the Coptic Christians at a time when Islamism was on the rise, our correspondent says.
On October 2nd two Coptic boys, aged nine and ten, were arrested in Beni-Suef, south of Cairo, having been accused of tearing up pages of the Koran.
Ms Eweida, 60, a Coptic Christian from Twickenham in south-west London, told the BBC she was "jumping with joy" after the ruling, adding it had "not been an easy ride".
BBC: British Airways Christian employee Nadia Eweida wins case
Now during that era, yes, Coptic persecution was markedly subdued.
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Egypt's minority of Coptic Christians, who make up about 10% of the population, have accused the government of failing to protect them, following the fall of Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
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