At least 36 people were killed and 272 injured in clashes between Coptic Christians and Egyptian security forces on Sunday, October 9 near the state television building, known as Maspero, in Cairo, Egypt’s health ministry said.

Egypt’s army rulers, meanwhile, imposed a curfew on Cairo’s Tahrir Square and downtown area, the state media announced. Tahrir Square was the epicenter of the February uprising that overthrew former President Hosni Mubarak.

The clashes were prompted by an attack on a Coptic Christian church in Merinab village in Aswan on Sept. 30 by Muslims who said the church did not have the proper license to build a dome.

Sectarian clashes are frequent in Egypt where Copts, who make up 10 percent of the 80-million-strong population, have been the target of attacks and have repeatedly accused the authorities of systematic discrimination, Al Arabia News reported.