One demonstrator was killed and two injured on Friday when Egyptian police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse a pro-reform rally in the Nile Delta city of Mansura, the Muslim Brotherhood said.
The casualties came as the authorities launched a wave of arrests against the banned but normally tolerated Islamist opposition after it organised a string of demonstrations across Egypt on Wednesday.
Tariq Mahdi Ghanam, a 40-year-old teacher, ”suffocated after inhaling tear gas fired by security forces”, said Abdul Moneim Mahmud, a Brotherhood member who took part in Friday’s rally.
Interior ministry sources confirmed the death, but said the man had died of a heart attack.
Witnesses said Ghanam died in a mosque to which he had been taken after security forces intervened to break up the demonstration of about 5 000 Brotherhood members in Mansura.
Two demonstrators were also injured by police rubber bullets, Mahmud said.
Gamal Shuheib suffered broken ribs, while a second protester he identified only as Ayman sustained chest wounds.
Earlier, security forces detained four senior Brotherhood leaders in the latest of a wave of arrests that the opposition group says has netted more than 1 500 of its members in the past few days. — Sapa-AFP