Security forces fired teargas and bird-shots to disperse a student protest against the country's interim leadership at Cairo University on Tuesday. Students opposing what they say was a "coup" against former president Mohamed Morsi have been staging protests on campus over the past few weeks. Since the army ousted Morsi in July amid nationwide protests against his rule, his supporters have been demonstrating against the current government and calling for his reinstatement.
On Tuesday, hundreds of students started a march from the House of Sciences on campus to nearby Giza Square, where a pro-Morsi Islamist camp was staged for weeks before police forcibly dispersed it in August.
An eyewitness told Ahram Online that Central Security Forces (CSF) cut off the march on its way to Giza near the Faculty of Engineering and fired warning bird-shots in the air.
"When the march did not move back, CSF fired teargas and bird-shots at the students," eyewitness Mohamed El-Shafie, student at the Faculty of Arts, said.
"I saw injuries, but they were minor," he added.
Scuffles continued between security and students before they returned to campus. Tensions did not subside, however, with further fights breaking out between protesting students and their opponents.
Campus security reportedly intervened to end the melee.
Police also fired teargas at a student protest that marched outside Al-Azhar University campus on Monday, leaving three people injured. However, students continued to protest on Tuesday on university grounds.
Meanwhile, Reuters' Aswat Masriya website reported that similar scuffles took place in several universities nationwide on Tuesday.
Clashes broke out between pro-Morsi students, mainly loyalists of the Muslim Brotherhood, from which he hails, and their opponents at Helwan University.
Hundreds of students and professors also protested in Upper Egypt's Assiut University.
Dozens of students have been arrested nationwide in recent protests.
