An Egyptian court Wednesday jailed 69 persons for life for torching a church near Cairo in August 2013, as anger flared over a crackdown on supporters of ousted president Mohammad Mursi.

An Egyptian court Wednesday jailed 69 persons for life for torching a church near Cairo in August 2013, as anger flared over a crackdown on supporters of ousted president Mohammad Mursi.

The Coptic church was set on fire and a police station was attacked when violence erupted in the town of Kerdasa on August 14 that year, after hundreds of Mursi supporters died in a crackdown on two protest camps in the capital the same day.

The court also sentenced two minors to 10 years in jail in the same case. A life term in Egypt amounts to 25 years in jail.

The defendants were found guilty of "setting the church on fire, attempting to murder civilians and possessing illegal weapons," a judicial official said.