Dozens killed at pro-Morsi protests

Deadly clashes have erupted in Cairo at a protest held by supporters of ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi.

Running battles are taking place around the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque and there is blood on the streets, says the BBC's Quentin Sommerville at the scene.

Reports of the death toll vary, but Mr Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood says at least 38 people have been killed.

Early on Saturday, Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim vowed to end the sit-in at the mosque.

He said local residents had complained about the encampment and that the protest would be "brought to an end soon and in a legal manner".

Overnight, huge rallies were held by supporters and opponents of Mr Morsi.

Many thousands occupied Cairo's Tahrir Square in support of the army, which removed Mr Morsi from office earlier this month.

Army chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Sisi had urged people to take to the streets to give the military a mandate for its intervention.

Our correspondent says automatic gunfire can still be heard and the area around the mosque is being hit by barrages of tear gas.

Security forces, joined by anti-Morsi demonstrators, appear to be forcing protesters closer to the mosque and ambulances are taking people to nearby hospitals, he adds.

Hundreds of people are said to have been injured.

Most wounds appear to be from buckshot and CS gas canisters, our correspondent says, but there are reports of live fire.

There are conflicting reports of the number of deaths.

The Muslim Brotherhood told Reuters that at least 38 people had died.

Brotherhood spokesman Gehad el-Haddad told Reuters: "They are not shooting to wound, they are shooting to kill."

A doctor in a field hospital at the scene, Yehia Mikkia, also told the Associated Press news agency that 38 Morsi supporters had been killed.

There has also been violence in Egypt's second city of Alexandria, where at least 10 people have been killed in clashes between rival factions.

Morsi charged

Since Mr Morsi, the country's first democratically elected president, was ousted on 3 July, dozens of people have died in violent protests.

Mr Morsi has now been formally accused of conspiring with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip and has strong links with the Muslim Brotherhood.

He is alleged to have plotted attacks on jails in the 2011 uprising that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak.

Mr Morsi and several Muslim Brotherhood leaders were freed during a breakout at a Cairo prison in January 2011.

Mr Morsi is to be questioned for an initial 15-day period, a judicial order said.

The order issued on Friday was the first official statement on Mr Morsi's legal status since he was overthrown and placed in custody at an undisclosed location.



Source: BBC