Sectarian clashes between Muslims and Copts broke out Thursday in the Upper Egyptian province of Minya, leaving three people dead and eighteen others injured, security sources said.

According to the sources, violence erupted in the villages of Nazlet Ebeed and Al-Hawarteh in Minya when a Coptic man from Nazlet Ebeed built a house in the outskirts of the adjacent Al-Hawarteh village.

Muslims in Al-Hawarteh suspected that the building was meant to be a church and engaged in a verbal confrontation with the man's family, which later evolved into armed clashes.

Minya security chief Osama Metwali said that two Muslims and one Copt was killed in the clashes.

Elsewhere in the province, clashes broke out between Muslims and Copts in Al-Badrman village over an alleged love affair between a Coptic man and a Muslim woman, a security source said.

Police forces contained the situation by firing teargas, the source said.

Sectarian clashes involving Muslims and Christians are not uncommon in the most populous Arab country.

Christian Copts make up between 8-10 percent of Egypt's population of nearly 90 million people, according to unofficial estimates.