CAIRO: Rival groups of students, some armed with guns and Molotov cocktails, clashed in Egypt yesterday, state media and security sources said, as violence triggered by the overthrow of President Mohammed Mursi spread to universities.
At least 29 people were wounded in fighting between groups for and against the ousted Islamist leader at at least three campuses, said the reports.
Egypt has been gripped by turmoil since the army ousted Mursi on July 3 after mass protests against his rule.
Pro-Mursi students have started rallying in campuses, traditional hotbeds of Islamist and political activity.
They met their first significant opposition yesterday when groups supporting and opposing Mursi clashed at Cairo’s Ain Shams University, leaving at least 12 wounded, security sources said.
Fifteen people were wounded when rival students at Zagazig University, some armed with guns and Molotov cocktails, fought, the state news agency said.
State-owned newspaper Al Ahram said unidentified gunmen shot at students marching and shouting anti-army slogans in the city northeast of Cairo where Mursi taught engineering. It did not say whether anyone was hit.
Two people were wounded in clashes at a university in the Nile Delta city of Tanta, sources said.
The army-backed authorities, meanwhile, have extended the detention of two Canadians held without charge since political clashes in mid-August as officials investigate a small remote control aeroplane and other items found in the pair’s hotel room.
The Canadian government called earlier this month for Tarek Loubani, a doctor, and John Greyson, a film-maker, to be released.
The two men, who have been on hunger strike for 13 days, face a range of charges including arson, murder, and attacking a police station which come with the allegation they participated in illegal demonstrations by supporters of Mursi in the city on August 16.
In the Sinai Peninsula, a sniper shot dead an Egyptian soldier, security sources said yesterday, a region where Al Qaeda-linked fighters have stepped up attacks on security forces since the army deposed Mursi.
The soldier was killed late on Saturday while on guard at a security checkpoint in the town of Al Qusayma, the sources said.
On Saturday morning another Egyptian soldier was shot dead in the Sinai.
REUTERS
