Police have arrested 15 people after an arson attack on houses belonging to Coptic Christians in an Upper Egyptian village on Saturday, a security source said.
The defendants are accused of torching five houses in Abou Yacoub village in Minya governorate on Saturday, after rumours spread that a church was being constructed in the area.
They were arrested hours later, Al-Ahram's Arabic site reported.
The incident came 20 days after similar events had taken place in Samalout, also in Minya, when locals set on fire an under-construction building out of belief that it was a church.
Sectarian-motivated attacks on Christians are common occurrences in Egypt, with Minya, home to a large number of Copts, a particular hotspot.
In May, a mob attacked Christian homes in a village in Minya and stripped an older Coptic woman naked after an alleged affair between her son and a Muslim woman.
According to unofficial estimates, Christians make up roughly 10 percent of the Egypt’s 90 million people.
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