Curfew around Egypt's defence ministry after soldiers clash with protesters

Egypt's army imposed an overnight curfew around the defence ministry in Cairo on Friday after fierce clashes between the military and protesters. Soldiers and military police fired live rounds and teargas. The Guardian witnessed people with head injuries being taken to hospital after a crowd of protesters, some throwing rocks, had surged towards the defence ministry, where 11 were killed in clashes on Wednesday. Other reporters caught up in the melee reported heavy shooting in places. It was the latest in a series of protests by Egyptian revolutionaries and Islamists who fear that the interim military leadership are subverting presidential elections due to start on 23 May. Earlier on Friday, thousands of demonstrators massed in Cairo's downtown Tahrir Square, including the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, Salafis and leftist movements, to warn of vote-rigging and demand the generals hand over power to civilians. In the afternoon, they marched to the defence ministry, several miles away across Cairo in the district of Abbasiyah. The clashes erupted when protesters in Abbasiyah tried to cut through barbed wire between them and troops blocking access to the ministry. Live footage on state TV showed troops snatching one protester, beating him with metal rods, tearing his clothes and leaving his back bloody. The troops fired water cannons at protesters and hurled stones at them to keep them from advancing. The protesters took shelter behind metal sheets snatched from a nearby construction site and hurled back stones. Others climbed the roof of a nearby university and showered soldiers with rocks from above. The troops then opened up with heavy volleys of teargas that pushed the demonstrators back. The violence has thrown the first presidential election since last year's ousting of President Hosni Mubarak into turmoil, with several candidates suspending their campaigns in protest at the military's handling of the situation. On Thursday, members of the military council repeated their pledge to hand over power once one of the 13 presidential candidates wins, an apparent attempt to assuage concerns that they would use the violence as an excuse to stay on. But they also warned demonstrators against holding Friday protests near the defence ministry and said soldiers have the right to defend their positions, sparking fears of renewal of violence. The circumstances of the deadly clashes that took place in Abbasiyah on Wednesday remain unclear. Protesters believe the assailants were hired thugs or plainclothes police and troops, similar to past attacks on protests. They say the military allowed Wednesday's attack to take place, noting troops nearby did nothing to stop fighting for hours. But the Abbasiyah protests appear also to have drawn in local residents, angry at the week-long sit-in that has shut down their neighbourhood. Locals complained that the Islamists sealed off streets.