A 70-year-old Christian woman has been stripped naked, beaten and paraded through the streets by about 300 Muslim men in a village in southern Egypt.

According to statement issued by the local Orthodox Coptic church, the mob also burned down seven homes belonging to Christian families, after rumours circulated in the village that a Christian man was having a relationship with a Muslim woman, as the Independent reports.

The violence started early in the morning May 20 , and the local diocese said it was two hours before police responded, by which point the mob had already dispersed.

The woman who was stripped naked was reported to be the mother of the man involved in the rumoured affair. The local Christians called immediately the police, but officers reached the scene after two hours when the mod had already dispersed.

The violence is representative of the tensions between Muslims and Christians in the province south of Cairo.