Attackers armed with knives went on the rampage in three Coptic churches in Egypt's second city of Alexandria today, killing one worshipper and injuring at least a dozen more.

The assailants, each armed with two knives, are believed to have slashed randomly at Christians attending Friday Mass in the simultaneous attacks. Police later said they had arrested three men.

The attacks triggered clashes between Christians and Muslims in the Sidi Bishr district, the site of the Saints Church where at least ten people were injured, two seriously.

Police said three people were wounded at the nearby Mari Girgis (St. George) Church, and four attacked at a church in Abu Qir, several miles to the east.

"The attacker stormed the church armed with a knife and shouted ’There is no God but Allah’ and ’Allah is the greatest’ before stabbing the worshippers," one of the Marie Girgis church employees told an AFP reporter at the scene.

"We closed the doors of the church as soon as he started attacking the worshippers and we fought back with sticks but he tried to flee through one of the church’s underground passages."

Father Augustinos, who heads a different Mari Girgis Church, said the attacks occurred just after Mass began at 9am (0700 GMT).

"They could be Islamic activists. They consider this as jihad," he said of the attackers, who broke through regularly stationed security barriers and police to enter the churches.

The attack comes on what is Good Friday to many of the world’s Christians. However, Egypt’s Coptic Christians and other followers of the Greek Orthodox church commemorate the holiday a week later.

Coptic Christians account for about ten percent of Egypt’s population of 72 million and have been the subject of discrimination and harassment.

Four people were killed in Alexandria in October when Muslims attacked churches and shops over the distribution of a DVD of a play deemed offensive to Islam.

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