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 Mohamed Morsi spread to universities.
At least 29 people were wounded in fighting between groups for and against the ousted Islamist leader at three campuses, said the reports.
Egypt has been gripped by turmoil since the army ousted Morsi on July 3 after mass protests against his rule, prompting his Muslim Brotherhood to take to the streets.
A security crackdown has severely restricted the Brotherhood’s activities and pro-Morsi students have started rallying in campuses, traditional hotbeds of Islamist and political activity.
They met their first significant opposition on Sunday when groups supporting and opposing Morsi 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 Morsi 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 Brotherhood is facing one of the toughest crackdowns in its 85-year history. Many of its top leaders were arrested and hundreds of members were killed when security forces crushed protest sit-in camps in Cairo in August.
Transitional phase of government should end by next spring
The latest blow to the Middle East’s oldest Islamist movement came last week, when a court banned the Brotherhood and ordered its funds seized.
The army has promised that a political roadmap will lead to elections in the Arab world’s most populous country.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy said at the UN on Saturday the transitional phase of government in Egypt should end “by next spring”, when leaders appointed after the army ousted Mursi would be replaced.