Cairo An Egyptian man had killed his wife for failing to fix him a lunch meal due to a severe shortage in butane gas cylinders, a local newspaper reported on Thursday.

Back home from work, the man in the southern Egyptian province of Beni Saif asked the 22-year-old woman if she had prepared lunch, and when she said she did not due to their empty gas cylinder, he ran berserk and fatally stabbed her, added Al Wafd.

Egypt is in the grip of an acute crisis of butane gas and diesel fuel supplies, which the government has blamed on a thriving black market. Two persons were killed this week in southern Egypt during clashes over gas cylinders, according to local media.