Islamist supporters of deposed President Mohamed Morsi refused to abandon their protest camps in Cairo yesterday and said they would fend off any police crackdown with sticks, stones and their faith.

Security sources and a government official had said on Sunday that police action to dismantle the camps would begin at dawn despite the risk of violent clashes. But nothing transpired during the course of the day.

At the al-Nahda camp, centred round a traffic circle and extending down a palm tree-lined boulevard next to the city zoo, protesters lolled in the shade of tents away from the mid-afternoon sun. The mood was solemn but not fearful.

Asked about the threat to break up the camps, Ahmed Shargawy, a 23-year-old translator, said: “They said that 15 days ago too. They always say they are going to finish it.”

A block away, half a dozen armoured troop carriers and a few squads of soldiers were positioned outside a police station, but they did not look like part of a strike force ready to move.

The authorities are keen to end the protests, the focus of opposition to the military’s overthrow of Morsi six weeks ago.

They had held off from acting over the Eid al-Fitr holiday after the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. The holiday ended on Sunday. A security source said the delay was also because crowds had swelled the camps after reports of an imminent crackdown.

The demonstrators say Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected leader, must be reinstated. The army says it acted on behalf of Egyptians who had staged huge rallies to demand Morsi’s removal.

Western and Arab envoys and some senior Egyptian government members have pressed the army to avoid using force as it tries to end the crisis in the Arab nation of 84 million people.

Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy said the right to peaceful protest would be guaranteed and every effort was being made to resolve the situation through dialogue. But he suggested there was a limit to the government’s patience.

“It is not reasonable for any democratic government to have to accept sit-ins where violence is being used and the security of citizens and the country is being threatened,” state news agency Mena quoted him as saying in an interview with the BBC.

One security official said the protesters would be removed gradually. Warnings would be issued and police would use water cannons and tear gas to disperse those who refused to budge.