Police officers firing tear gas joined with a rock-throwing crowd fighting a group of Christian mourners Sunday in a battle that turned Egypt’s main Coptic Christian Cathedral into a battleground

Police officers firing tear gas joined with a rock-throwing crowd fighting a group of Christian mourners Sunday in a battle that turned Egypt’s main Coptic Christian Cathedral into a battleground.

It was the third day of an outburst of sectarian violence that is testing the pledges of Egypt’s President to protect the country’s Christian minority who make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s population of over 85 million. By nightfall, at least one person had died from the day’s clashes that lasted for hours, bringing the weekend’s death toll to six.

Later on Sunday, Egypt’s President Mohammad Mursi condemned the deadly clashes, considering that “any attack on the cathedral an attack against myself.”

The Egyptian president also called for “an immediate investigation” into the violence.

In a telephone call to Coptic Pope Tawadros II late on Sunday, Mursi said the “protection of all citizens, Muslims and Christians, is the responsibility of the state.”

Violence between Christians and Muslims has left several people dead and nearly 70 injured in recent days.

On April 5, four Christian Copts and one Muslim were killed when the two sides started fighting in El Khusus, north of the capital. The clashes erupted after Christian children drew a crucifix on the front wall of a Muslim religious institute in the Qalyubiyah governorate.