CAIRO (AA) – At least five people were reportedly killed and 265 Muslim Brotherhood members arrested during Friday rallies staged by supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi.
Two protesters were reportedly killed in an attack by security forces on a pro-democracy rally in the southern Minya province, sources said.
A third demonstrator was reportedly killed in the northern city of New Damietta.
Two more protesters were also reportedly killed in Cairo and the southern province of Aswan, according to the sources.
The Interior Ministry had earlier said that three people were killed during Friday rallies, blaming the Muslim Brotherhood for the fatalities.
A ministry statement did not, however, explain the circumstances in which the three were killed or what camp they belonged to.
The ministry said that some 265 Muslim Brotherhood members were arrested during Friday rallies.
The ministry statement had said that the protesters had been arrested for "rioting, blocking roads and assaulting citizens and policemen with firearms."
In the Giza province adjacent to Cairo, meanwhile, a number of police vehicles were set alight.
Friday's rallies came in response to calls by the National Alliance for the Defense of Legitimacy, Morsi's main support bloc, for weeklong protests.
On Wednesday, the military-backed government designated the Muslim Brotherhood, the group from which Morsi hails, as a "terrorist group." The move came one day after 16 people, mostly policemen, were killed in a bombing that struck a security headquarters in the Nile Delta.
For the last 183 days, pro-democracy protesters have staged daily rallies to denounce what they describe as the July 3 "military coup" against Morsi and demand his reinstatement.
