Tear gas fired as clashes erupt in Egypt
2012-12-21 14:33
Alexandria - Riot police fired tear gas to separate clashing
protesters in Egypt's second city of Alexandria on Friday, AFP correspondents
reported, as tensions rose over a new constitution.
Lines of black-clad officers kept apart thousands of
Islamists on one side and hundreds of anti-constitution protesters on the
other. Dozens of rival protesters pelted each other with rocks in running
battles.
The violence broke out on the eve of the final round of a
referendum on the draft charter, which is backed by President Mohammed Morsi and
his Islamist supporters.
Alexandria, which voted in the first round of the referendum
last weekend, has seen several clashes between pro- and anti-Morsi protesters.
On 14 December, opposition protesters besieged a mosque in
the Mediterranean city, prompting running battles between rock-throwing groups
of men, some of whom brandished swords.
Islamists organised Friday's rally to protest last week's
siege of the mosque, sparked by a cleric's call for people to vote yes in the
constitution.
Duelling demonstrations have been taking place around Egypt
for a month. On 5 December, vicious clashes broke out in front of Morsi's
presidential palace in Cairo, killing eight people and wounding more than 600.
The army has deployed 120 000 soldiers to bolster 130 000
police tasked with maintaining security during the volatile voting.
The opposition sees the proposed constitution as weakening
human rights and opening the way to creeping sharia-style strict Islamic laws
under Morsi.
- SAPA
