Clashes erupt at pro-Morsi march

Clashes broke out in central Cairo Tuesday when supporters of deposed president Mohamed Morsi came under attack as they marched to the Interior Ministry, killing 6 people and injuring at least 11, Reuters reports.

The violence comes after the expiry of a government ultimatum to dismantle the sprawling protest camps, but Morsi’s supporters say nothing short of his reinstatement will persuade them to clear the pro-Morsi protest camps from Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya and Nahda squares.

"There's no going forward with negotiations, the only way is back. Morsi must be reinstated," Karim Ahmed told Reuters, a student in a blue hard-hat who waved a picture of the deposed president as he flung rocks at a ministry building.

Supporters of the new military-installed government hurled stones at the marchers and threw bottles at them from balconies, witnesses said. Police then fired tear gas to disperse the crowds.

Morsi-supporters had taken their protests to key government buildings in the center of the capital, Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh reports from Cairo.

"There were scuffles at least at three different points between protester groups after Morsi-supporters surrounded some of the government buildings. They have been throwing bottles and rocks to each other," he reported.

A few thousand pro-Morsi protesters were taking part in the march when the scuffles began. Local residents taunted the demonstrators, calling them terrorists and saying they were not welcome before throwing stones at them, Reuters reported. Morsi's supporters also responded by hurling rocks.

The Muslim Brotherhood said that Egyptian policemen dressed in plain clothes had opened fire with live rounds at one of its marches in Cairo, wounding five people. A security source said seven protesters had been wounded but added that it was not immediately clear who had opened fire. Sources at the field hospital at Rabaa al-Adaweya said that 10 people were injured during fights in front of the Ministry of Endowment between local residents and pro-Morsi Muslim scholars working there.

Supporters of the deposed president called for more mass demonstrations Tuesday.

The so-called "Anti-Coup Pro-Democracy Alliance," which supports Morsi, called for a "million-man demonstration" after the judiciary said Monday that it was extending his detention for a further 15 days, pending an investigation into Morsi’s alleged collaboration with the Palestinian group Hamas.

The ongoing standoff with the army-backed interim government, which has threatened to disperse the two Cairo sit-ins where thousands of pro-Morsi-protesters have been camped out for over a month, has caused worry among the international community.

Egyptian authorities postponed a move to disperse two Cairo sit-ins Monday to "avoid bloodshed," security sources said. Some officials wish to avoid a bloody showdown that would damage the government's efforts to present itself as legitimate, while hardliners in the army and security forces fear they are losing face to the Brotherhood and want to move in.

Rabab al-Mahdi, professor of political science at the American University of Cairo, said the demonstrations "are not sit-ins like any others." Authorities "are dealing with the most organised political force in the country. They know that the cost will be higher than the dispersal of past protests," Mahdi said.

The protesters are calling for the reinstatement of Morsi, who was overthrown by the military on July 3 and is now being held at an undisclosed location.

Al Jazeera and wire services