Commotion in Egypt Worsens

Three dead and 276 injured in street fighting outside palace.

Supporters and opponents of President Mohammed Morsi were involved in ugly street fighting. Photo / AP

Egypt descended into political turmoil over the constitution drafted by Islamist allies of President Mohammed Morsi as supporters and opponents battled each other with firebombs, rocks and sticks outside the presidential palace.

The Interior Ministry said at least three people were killed and 276 people were injured in the street battles outside the presidential palace in Cairo's Heliopolis district. Of the injured, 35 were policemen.

Last night the army deployed three tanks and three armoured personnel carriers metres from the front gate of the palace.

The clashes were the worst violence since Egypt's latest political turmoil erupted on November 22 with Morsi assuming near absolute powers.

It was the first time supporters of rival camps have fought each other since last year's uprising that toppled authoritarian ruler President Hosni Mubarak.

Four more presidential aides resigned in protest over Morsi's handling of the crisis, and a key opponent of the Islamist President likened Morsi's rule to that of Mubarak.

Both sides were digging in for a long struggle, with the opposition vowing more protests and rejecting any dialogue unless the charter is rescinded, and Morsi pressing relentlessly forward with plans for a December 15 constitutional referendum.

"The solution is to go to the ballot box," declared Mahmoud Ghozlan, a spokesman for Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, asserting the charter was "the best constitution Egypt ever had".

The large scale and intensity of the fighting marked a milestone in Egypt's rapidly entrenched schism, pitting Morsi's Brotherhood and ultra-conservative Islamists in one camp against liberals, leftists and Christians in the other.

The fighting erupted when thousands of Morsi's Islamist supporters descended on an area near the presidential palace where around 300 of his opponents were staging a sit-in. The members of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood chased the protesters away and tore down their tents.

After a brief lull, hundreds of Morsi opponents arrived and began throwing firebombs at the President's backers, who responded with rocks. Volunteers ferried the wounded on motorcycles to waiting ambulances.

Mohamed ElBaradei, a leading opposition reform advocate, said Morsi's rule was "no different" than Mubarak's. "In fact, it is perhaps even worse," the Nobel Peace Prize laureate said, accusing the President's supporters of a "vicious and deliberate" attack on peaceful demonstrators. "History will give no mercy and the people will not forget."

The huge scale of the opposition protests has dealt a blow to the legitimacy of the new charter, which Morsi's opponents contend allows religious authorities too much influence over legislation, threatens to restrict freedom of expression and opens the door to Islamist control over day to day life.

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