Nine Dead As Cairo Clashes Enter Second Day

At least nine people have been killed and more than 300 injured as clashes involving anti-military protesters in Cairo entered a second day, Egyptian officials have said.

Hundreds of soldiers swept into Cairo's Tahrir Square on Saturday chasing demonstrators, beating them with sticks and destroying journalists' cameras.

Troops armed with batons retaliated after protesters threw missiles at security forces in the capital. It followed a police decision to seal off streets around the country's parliament building.

Soldiers on rooftops pelted the crowds below with stones, prompting many of the protesters to pick up helmets, satellite dishes or sheets of metal to use as shields.

Stones and shattered glass littered the streets in the city centre, while flames were seen at the windows of a two-storey building set ablaze near parliament, sending out thick plumes of black smoke.

Soldiers set fire to tents inside Tahrir Square - which was the focus of the uprising that toppled the former leader Hosni Mubarak - and swept through buildings where television crews were filming from and confiscated their equipment and briefly detained journalists.

There are continuing tensions between the ruling military council that took power from Mubarak earlier this year and activists who want power transferred to civilians.

Last month street fights between youth protesters and security forces lasted for days and left more than 40 dead.

Egypt's prime minister, Kamal al Ganzouri, defended the security forces' response.

He acknowledged that people had died from gunshot wounds, but denied the military and the police had fired at protesters.

He accused the anti-military protesters gathered outside the Cabinet building as being "anti-revolution".

But journalist Sharif Kouddous, speaking to Sky News from Cairo, said many of those taking part in the clashes were the same protesters who helped remove Mubarak from power.

The military, which has overseen two peaceful rounds of voting in parliamentary elections in recent weeks, has previously blamed a third party for the majority of incidents that have seen protesters shot.

But activists say the military is trying to cling to power by carrying on the practices of the old regime, including arresting and beating dissidents.

Mustafa Ali, a protester who was wounded by pellet shot in clashes last month, accused the ruling generals Saturday of instigating the violence to "find a justification to remain in power and divide up people into factions".