AFP

Cairo

Two young men were killed in clashes yesterday between supporters and opponents of Egypt’s toppled Islamist president as police used teargas to disperse protests, officials said.

Protesters across the country defied the icy weather brought by a rare winter storm to vent anger over the military’s July 3 overthrow of Mohamed Mursi, the country’s first democratically elected president.

A 23-year-old was hit by gunfire in Suez when clashes broke out between supporters and opponents of Mursi, and three policemen were wounded, local officials and medics in the canal city said.

Protesters in Suez also torched a police car, security officials said, adding that a similar incident took place in Qena in southern Egypt.

In Fayyum, south of the capital, a 19-year-old man was shot dead in clashes and two policemen were wounded by buckshot, local health department officials said.

Teargas grenades were used against Islamists in several Cairo districts after protesters took to the streets for weekly pro-Mursi demonstrations.

Protesters lobbed petrol bombs at police in the capital, the security officials said.

The interior ministry said 54 protesters were arrested nationwide.

Such demonstrations are regarded as illegal, since they do not conform to a new law requiring organisers to give three days’ notice to police.

Police also intervened in the Nile Delta city of Mahalla to break up clashes between pro- and anti-Mursi demonstrators.

The Islamist Anti-Coup Alliance organises regular protests demanding Mursi’s reinstatement that often set off clashes with security forces and opponents of the deposed president.

More than 1,000 people, mainly Mursi supporters, have been killed and thousands of Islamists have been arrested since the military-installed government launched a crackdown in mid-August.