At least two people have been shot and killed in the Egyptian city of Suez as police used live rounds to hold back crowds during a protest over security forces' failure to prevent a deadly football riot.

Witnesses said fighting broke out at a local police station in the northeastern city in the early hours of Friday, hours after the two male protesters were killed.

"We received two corpses of protesters shot dead by live ammunition," a doctor at a morgue where the bodies were kept told the Reuters news agency.


Earlier, hundreds of people were injured in the capital, Cairo, after police fired tear gas at protesters who accused the ruling military council of mismanaging the country.

The protesters had taken to the streets in the thousands on Thursday to demand retribution for the deaths of 74 people killed a day earlier during post-football violence in the city of Port Said - violence that most blamed on police inaction.

According to the state health ministry, at least 668 people were wounded in the Cairo clashes.

Al Jazeera’s Sue Turton, reporting from Cairo, said protesters pushed their way towards the barricaded interior ministry building near Tahrir Square, pulling away barbed wire barriers.

"All this is taking place in the direct vicinity of Tahrir Square but the rest of Cairo carries on as normal," she said.

The protesters hurled stones at police, who responded with heavy tear gas. The wounded were ferried out of the area on motorbikes.

Spread of chaos

In Tahrir Square, witnesses saw at least five ambulances rush in the direction of Thursday's clashes.

Some demonstrators tried to move big concrete blocs erected around the interior ministry since November, when clashes between the police and protesters then left more than 40 people dead.

In scenes reminiscent of those clashes, protesters set tyres on fire, sending black smoke in the air. Egyptian state TV said 100 people had passed out from the tear gas.
The interior ministry said in a statement that the protesters had cut the barbed wire, and crossed over the concrete blocs to reach the roads leading to the headquarters.

It urged the protesters "to listen to the sound of wisdom ... at these critical moments" to prevent the spread of chaos.

Earlier in the day, hundreds joined funeral processions in the streets of Port Said.

Wednesday's riots at the stadium in Port Said erupted when fans of the home team al-Masry stormed the field following a rare 3-1 win against al-Ahly, one of Egypt's most popular clubs.

A security official said fans chased al-Ahly players and cornered their supporters on the field and around the stadium, throwing stones and bottles at them.

Al-Ahly players were trapped in the changing room along with supporters and riot police were sent in to drive the rival crowds of fans back.

Mohamed Ibrahim, Egypt's interior minister, said many of the victims had died in a crush of people at the stadium.

At least 52 people have been arrested and authorities said the search for suspects linked to the violence was continuing.

Revenge attacks

A network of rabid football fans known as Ultras vowed vengeance, accusing the police of intentionally letting rivals attack them because they have been at the forefront of protests over the past year, first against Hosni Mubarak, the deposed president, and now the military.

Many of the fans who were among the protesters vowed to storm the ministry.

Egypt declared three days of mourning for those killed in the football riots and angry members of parliament denounced the lack of security at the match during an emergency session on Thursday.

Addressing parliament, Kamal Ganzouri, the military-appointed prime minister, said Port Said's senior security chiefs and the governor had been suspended.

He also said the Egyptian football federation's board had been removed, but disappointed those seeking tougher steps, such as dismissal of the interior minister.

"Egypt went through a difficult night yesterday. Egypt spent its night crying [over] its dead," Saad Katatni, the parliament speaker, said in the session's opening remarks.

Essam el-Erian, a politician from the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party, said the military and police were complicit in the violence, accusing them of trying to show that emergency regulations giving security forces wide-ranging powers must be maintained.

"This tragedy is a result of intentional reluctance by the military and the police,'' he said