LUXOR, Egypt — Police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of Muslim protesters trying to storm a Coptic Christian church in southern Egypt on Friday, after a word spread that a Christian man sexually assaulted a 6-year-old girl.

Witnesses in Marashda village in the province of Qena said several shops and cars owned by Coptic Christians were torched overnight Thursday after Muslim villagers accused a merchant in his 60s of molesting the girl.