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Rallies mark anniversary of Egypt uprising

Egyptians have returned to the streets to mark the second anniversary of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, the former president.

Hundreds took to the capital's now iconic Tahrir Square on Friday morning, where youths protesting against the government clashed with Cairo police.

An official with the central emergency services said that 110 people were wounded in the violence.



Early morning clashes on Friday saw several injuries in Cairo's Tahrir Square and in Alexandria [Al Jazeera]

A witness told Reuters news agency that at one point riot police used one of the incendiaries thrown at them to set ablaze at least two tents erected by the youths.

Tahrir Square, which was the epicentre of the 2011 protests, is expected to further fill with crowds who oppose the government of Mohamed Morsi, the president.

In Alexandria, protesters formed human chains at the al-Qaed Ibrahim mosque, while others went down and stood on the tram rails at the rail station blocking the tracks.

Police fired tear gas at protesters as clashes broke out in two neighbourhoods of Egypt's second city.

Protesters burned tyres, sending plumes of dark smoke into the sky.

"The smoke is black, there is a lot of gas. There are people on the ground because they can't breathe," one of the protesters, only identified as Rasha, told the AFP news agency.

Dozens of protesters continued to arrive in the area surrounding the mosque.

Al Jazeera's Mike Hanna, reporting from the Egyptian capital, said that demonstrators there are "attempting to get through to the Ministry of the Interior, which has been baricaded off."

Our corresponded said the people protesting in Cairo, Alexandria, Port Said and Suez are still angry, "they are not convinced that their government is acting in their interests".

'Bread, freedom, social justice'

Calls for mass street protests against Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, from which he hails, have been led by the secular-leaning opposition.

Protesters have been urged to use the same slogan used during the uprsing in 2011: "Bread, freedom, social justice."

Mohamed El Baradei, an opposition leader and former head of the UN's atomic agency, wrote on his Twitter account: "Go out into the squares to finally achieve the objectives of the revolution".


Police in Cairo also deployed tear gas outside the presidential palace in an effort to keep protesters away from the building.

Our correspondent in Cairo said that the Muslim Brotherhood had sent out messages discouraging its members from participating in the protests, suggesting that they instead perform acts of civic responsibility, such as planting trees.

"And these things have been happening," said Mike Hanna. He added that despite protests, there were also crowds celebrating the second anniversary of the revolution.

Earlier on Thursday, tensions ran high as police clashed with protesters who tried to dismantle a wall of concrete blocks.

The Muslim Brotherhood has not officially called for its own rallies, choosing to mark the anniversary by launching a charitable and social initiative dubbed "Together we will build Egypt."

In a speech on Thursday, Morsi urged the public to mark the anniversary in a "peaceful and civilised way".

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