Three suspects in a shooting that killed six Coptic Christians and a Muslim policeman in southern Egypt have turned themselves in after being squeezed in a police cordon, security sources said on Friday.

Police said they had surrounded the area around the city of Nagaa Hamady where the shooting took place on Wednesday and closed all possible routes of escape.

The killings took place just before midnight on Coptic Christmas Eve when a gunman, accompanied by two others, fired on Christians in a shopping area in Nagaa Hamady, killing two, then went to Mary Guirguis Church and shot five more, including the church's Muslim guard.

The interior ministry said on Thursday that a preliminary investigation suggested the gunman was a Muslim criminal known to police, and that the attack was related to the alleged rape of a Muslim woman by a Christian more than a month earlier.

About 1,000 Coptic Christians staged a protest in Nagaa Hamady on Thursday, saying the attack was an act of persecution aimed at Egyptian Christians.

Egypt's government denied it was sectarian violence, however, and said it was an isolated incident.
"The Nagaa Hamady incident is a crime committed by a thug and does not have anything to do with Islam," Khairat Osman, secretary-general of Egypt's ruling party in Qena governorate, where Nagaa Hamady is located, was quoted as saying by state agency MENA.

"All religions promote peace and love, and there are good relations between Coptics and Muslims."
Police are still investigating the motive.

Christians account for about 10 percent of Egypt's predominantly Muslim population of around 78 million. Sectarian violence is rare but disputes occasionally erupt.

Southern Egypt is relatively undeveloped compared with the capital Cairo. Nagaa Hamady, which has a large coptic population, is about 60 km (40 miles) north of the tourist and archaeological center of Luxor.
(REUTERS)