Silent night turns to holy fight in Greece

In spite of their differences, Christmas is a time when Christians from all denominations unite to celebrate the birth of Christ – but two warring groups of monks in Greece yesterday seemingly ignored the feast and skipped straight to Boxing Day, as they engaged in a no-holds-barred brawl.

Reminiscent of the bar room rather than the altar, the fight involved crowbars and fire extinguishers and had to be stopped by police and left seven needing hospital treatment.

The fracas took place at the Esphigmenou monastery in Mount Athos in northern Greece, one of the Orthodox Church's most holy sites, as the monks' long-running feud concerning the church's relationship with the Vatican reached boiling point.

Rebel abbot Methodius told the Associated Press: "We were attacked and had to respond. They should be ashamed to call themselves men of the cloth."

However, George Dalacouras, governor of Mount Athos, told the BBC that the rebels, who were squatting in the monastery, were the aggressors.

He added that the dispute left him fearing that someone could get killed in the near future.