Thousands participated in Coptic funerals

Funerals were held at Cairo's main Coptic cathedral on Monday for some of the victims killed in sectarian violence in the Egyptian capital which left 26 people dead, most of them Christians. Mourners packed the cathedral as coffins were carried in.

One man held up a bloody T-shirt which purportedly belonged to one of the victims killed in the night of rioting. The spiritual leader of the Coptic Christian minority in Egypt, Pope Shenouda III, presided over the service. Shenouda has declared three days of mourning, praying and fasting for the victims, starting on Tuesday.

The church has strongly criticized Egyptian authorities for allowing what they say are repeated attacks on Christians with impunity. Sunday was the worst sectarian violence in Egypt since the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak in February.

The clashes on Sunday night raged over a large section of downtown Cairo, and drew in Christians, Muslims and security forces. They began when about a thousand Christian protesters tried to stage a peaceful sit-in outside the state television building along the Nile in downtown Cairo.