At least two people were killed and 220 wounded yesterday as Egyptian protesters and security forces clashed in the worst violence in weeks, overshadowing the vote count in the latest round of a landmark general election.

The two people died of gunshot wounds, a health ministry official said, with state TV quoting the ministry as saying 220 others were injured.

The clashes, which raged since dawn, were the bloodiest since five days of protests in November killed more than 40 people just ahead of the first general election since the ouster of president Hosni Mubarak in February.

The violence erupted after a bloodied protester said he had been arrested by soldiers and beaten up, infuriating his comrades who began throwing stones at the soldiers, witnesses said.

Protesters also threw petrol bombs as the clashes continued through the morning with troops and military police repeatedly charging the crowd.

“The people demand the execution of the field marshal,” they chanted in reference to Hussein Tantawi, the head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which took over following Mubarak’s ouster. Early afternoon, the military police pulled back to a side street but the demonstrators were pelted with stones by men in plain clothes from another government building.

Blogger Mostafa Hussein said demonstrators managed to reach the lobby of the Cabinet offices after breaking down the front gate, but were pushed back by a large number of troops.

An AFP correspondent saw bloodied protesters being carried away by comrades and a string of arrests made.Troops later released some of the detained demonstrators, who emerged bloodied and bruised from what they said was a beating by their captors.The ruling military council blamed the protesters for the violence, in a statement published by the official Mena news agency.

It denied that soldiers tried to disperse the sit-in, saying the protesters had fired birdshot and thrown petrol bombs.