Egyptian police were called out to prevent Muslim-Christian violence, after two Christians were “axed to death:” Egypt Deploys 1,000 Police After Christians Killed. (Hat tip: RWC.)

SOHAG, Egypt (Reuters) - Egyptian authorities deployed some 1,000 police around a southern town on Saturday to forestall any Muslim-Christian clashes after two Christian men were killed in a street brawl, security sources said.

The Christians were axed to death after a donkey being ridden by a Muslim man slipped on the wet roadway outside their house in the town of Salamoun, about 350 km (220 miles) south of Cairo, they said.

The donkey rider was later arrested and questioned. Witnesses in the town said there had been no further violence but the situation was tense.

Salamoun, a Nile valley town of about 40,000 people, is close to 40 percent Coptic Christian but was also a stronghold of militant Islamists who fought the government in the 1990s.