A second day of clashes with Egyptian police left two protesters dead in Cairo yesterday as anger against the ruling military boiled over amid fury at the deaths of 74 people in football-related violence.

Marchers took to the streets across the country to demand that the generals cede power immediately after a night of demonstrations in major cities left at least two more people dead elsewhere in Egypt.

In a sign of the growing threat the political turmoil poses to the economy, two female American tourists and their Egyptian tour guide were briefly abducted in the Sinai Peninsula, security officials said.

The two protesters in Cairo died of tear gas inhalation after being rushed to hospital unconscious from outside the interior ministry, medics said. The health ministry said 544 people were injured in yesterday’s clashes.

Thick clouds of tear gas blanketed the road to the ministry, where protesters faced off with police after overnight clashes injured hundreds, an AFP reporter said.

Rocks and stones flew in all directions as police vans repeatedly charged before retreating. At one point, riot police clubbed protesters who were just metres away from the ministry headquarters.

Across the street, a building housing the Tax Authority was on fire, state TV reported without providing details.

A soldier injured outside the interior ministry building on Thursday died in hospital yesterday, the state Mena news agency reported.

In nearby Tahrir Square – nerve centre of the mass rallies that forced Hosni Mubarak from power last February – thousands gathered chanting slogans against the military council that took power when the veteran president quit.

In the canal city of Suez, where two demonstrators were killed late on Thursday, police fired birdshot and tear gas to disperse protesters, an AFP reporter said.