CAIRO
At least 100 protesters were injured in clashes between supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi and security forces outside a media production complex near Cairo, medics said late Friday.
The injured protesters were hit by "strange bullets", a doctor at the makeshift hospital in Giza's Nahda Square, which received the wounded, told the Anadolu Agency.
"The birdshot pellets (extracted from the bodies of the injured) were different from those usually used by the police," the doctor, who asked not to be named, said.
"The bullets are conical and three times bigger than the usual rounded ones."
Some of the cases that arrived to the field hospital were serious, said the doctor, citing two who needed urgent surgeries.
Earlier in the day, dozens of Morsi supporters marched to Egyptian Media Production City (EMPC) following the Friday prayers to protest what they describe as "biased" media coverage of ongoing pro-Morsi rallies.
Eyewitnesses said police fired teargas from inside the compound in an attempt to disperse the crowds, causing many demonstrators to suffer teargas inhalation.
Following a short hiatus for sunset prayers, security forces resumed firing teargas after protesters erected tents outside the complex with the intention of staging a sit-in.
A police vehicle was torched during clashes with protesters, who said the driver had tried to run over demonstrators.
The interior ministry said a policeman was shot and injured during the clashes.
At least 31 protesters were arrested in connection with the violence, the ministry said in a statement.
"Morsi supporters hurled stones, set security booths ablaze and scaled the walls of the city," the statement said. "But the ministry did not allow these elements to accomplish their criminal objectives or stage a sit-in in the vicinity of the complex."
EMPC is an information and media complex located near Cairo that houses several privately-owned Egyptian television and radio channels, including Al-Hayat TV, ONtv, CBC and Al-Nahar.
The protest was one of several rallies staged on Friday by pro-Morsi demonstrators to denounce the July 3 military coup that ousted the country's first elected president.
The rallies come one day after the Interior Ministry – which controls Egypt's sprawling police apparatus – urged Morsi supporters in Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya Square and Giza's Nahda Square to leave their sit-ins to "ensure their safety."
The government has said that it views the ongoing pro-Morsi sit-ins as "a threat to Egypt's national security."
On Wednesday, it mandated the Interior Minister to take "all necessary measures" to disperse the protests.
It provided no further information, however, as to what those measures might be.
Ever since his removal by the powerful military, supporters of the deposed president have been holding daily mass demonstrations and sit-ins nationwide to demand his reinstatement.
