Egyptian troops deployed tanks outside the presidential palace yesterday since streets clashes between Mohamed Morsi supporters and opponents rocked the capital.
The military set up a barbed wire barrier 150 metres from the palace, after ordering Morsi allies and foes alike to pull back, an AFP correspondent reporter.
In Morsi’s hometown, the Nile Delta city of Zagazig, police used tear gas to disperse protesters who surrounded the home of one of the President’s relatives, a police official said.
On Wednesday night, seven people were killed and 644 injured in clashes between Islamists and opposition activists, medical sources said. Another 50 people were arrested.
The anti-Morsi camp is furious with the President for his assuming sweeping powers two weeks ago and by what it feels was the railroading through by an Islamist-dominated panel of a draft constitution.
Many demonstrators were injured by birdshot, the health ministry said, but it was not immediately clear who was firing.
“(Hosni) Mubarak was tried for not protecting protesters. What about Morsi?” said student Korlos Magdy, 21, referring to the veteran strongman who was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the deaths of hundreds of protesters in the uprising that toppled him early last year.
At least 10 Republican Guard tanks deployed around the presidential palace in the upmarket Cairo neighbourhood of Heliopolis as the army gave demonstrators a 3pm deadline to disperse, an AFP correspondent reported.
Morsi supporters who had camped out near the palace began packing their belongings ahead of the deadline, the correpondent reported. Morsi opponents regrouped in a square about 300 metres away.
Republican Guard chief General Mohammed Zaki said the tanks were deployed to separate the feuding sides, pledging that the military “will not be an instrument of oppression.”
Morsi, who often spends the night at his private home in another Cairo suburb, arrived at the palace early yesterday.
Egypt’s top Islamic body, Al-Azhar, told him he should “suspend the latest decree and stop using it,” while also demanding an unconditional dialogue between the president and his opponents.