Armed men broke into a church in the northern Sinai peninsula on Saturday and stole furniture, witnesses said. Attempts to break into two others in the town were thwarted by the Egyptian army and vigilantes.
Vigilantes and the army have tried to fill a security vacuum left by the withdrawal of the police from the streets in the early days of a mass uprising against the rule of president Hosni Mubarak, who stepped down on Friday.
An explosion hit a church in the nearby town of Rafah on Feb. 5. The cause of the blast was not immediately clear. A church in Alexandria was targeted in a bombing on Jan. 1 that killed 23 people. Egyptian officials blamed the Gaza-based Army of Islam for the attack. The group denied the charge.
Coptic Orthodox Christians form 10 percent of Egypt's 80 million population. Tensions with the Muslim majority have long been a source of concern. The protesters who helped oust Mubarak have called for solidarity between Muslims and Christians.
