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At least 11 people were killed as security forces tried to clear protesters from Cairo’s Tahrir Square, casting a dark shadow over Egypt’s first elections since Hosni Mubarak’s downfall.
Police and military forces used batons, tear gas and birdshot to clear the central square of thousands of protesters demanding that the ruling military cede power to a civilian authority.
It was the second day of violence in the Egyptian capital, following a peaceful anti-military mass rally on Friday.
About 11 people died yesterday and two people on Saturday, kicking off a violent countdown to the country’s first elections since the end of Mubarak’s 30-year-rule. At least four had been shot dead yesterday.
Earlier Dr Mohammed Fatuh, who heads a field hospital in the square, said that three more bodies had been brought in bearing bullet wounds. Medics earlier reported four deaths, one from live fire and three from asphyxiation after tear gas was fired.
Police and troops seized the square only to be beaten back by protesters who retook it later, as had also happened on Saturday. The situation remained fluid with ongoing clashes around Tahrir — the symbolic heart of protests that toppled Mubarak in February.
There were heavy clashes on side streets leading to the interior ministry as protesters chanted “The people want to topple the field marshal” — Hussein Tantawi, Mubarak’s long-time defence minister who heads the ruling military.
Activists tweeted a video they said showed police dragging a corpse on the ground, in what appears to be Tahrir Square, and leaving it by a rubbish dump.
In the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, a funeral procession for one of the victims degenerated into clashes with the police who fired volleys of tear gas at mourners, the official MENA news agency reported.
In the canal city of Suez, troops fired live rounds into the air to stop protesters from storming a police station in the city centre.
Protests also broke out in the central cities of Qena and Assiut, a security official said, adding that 55 people had been arrested nationwide.
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