A security official said on Saturday that 24 people, both Coptic Christians and Muslim, were injured in clashes between Christians and Muslims in northern Egypt on Friday. He added that 20 people were arrested.

Fighting broke out in the northwestern province of Mersa Matrouh when Muslim residents began to hurl stones at Christian construction workers they thought were building a church.

The Christians said they were building a wall for a hospice, not a church, the official said.

"Around 400 people were involved in the fighting," the official said, adding, "A heavy security presence was deployed to the town and remained overnight to make sure there are no more clashes.”

The Copts, the Middle East's largest Christian community, make up between six and 10 percent of Egypt's 80 million population but complain of frequent discrimination and harassment.

-AFP/NOW Lebanon