Clashes broke out yesterday in Cairo and Egypt’s second city Alexandria between opponents and supporters of Islamist President Mohammed Mursi, injuring 10 people, the official MENA news agency said.
The bloodiest clashes were in Alexandria, where nine people were hurt and hospitalised after fighting broke out in the coastal city’s Sidi Gaber district near the offices of Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood group, MENA said, quoting Health Ministry official Khaled al-Khatib.
Security forces were rushed to the area, where they used teargas to disperse the two sides, the agency said, adding that opponents and supporters of Mursi had pelted each other with stones and Molotov cocktails.
In Cairo, one person was injured during a demonstration attended by hundreds outside the High Court, where protesters were demanding the resignation of prosecutor general Talaat Abdallah, who was appointed by Mursi in December.
The appointment came a month after the President sacked the prosecutor general Abdel Meguid Mahmoud, in a short-lived decree that granted Mursi sweeping powers and placed his decision beyond judicial review.
But in a new affront to Mursi, a court on Wednesday overturned the President’s decision to sack Mahmoud and ordered his reinstatement, prompting calls by the Opposition for demonstrations yesterday to back that decision.
Meanwhile, protesters in the central city of Mahalla set ablaze a car near the offices of the Justice and Freedom party, which is the political arm of the Brotherhood, after failing to storm the building, MENA reported.
The Brotherhood has seen more than 30 of its offices attacked across the country in widespread protests against Mursi in recent weeks.