Police fire tear gas at Cairo protesters, make several arrests

Police fired tear gas at stone-throwing protesters as around 50 anti-government demonstrators gathered in a square of Egypt’s capital Monday in defiance of an official ban, an AFP journalist said.

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and his interior minister had warned on the eve of the planned demonstrations that security forces would deal firmly with protesters.

Police had sealed off access to three venues for protests called by the secular and leftist opposition as well as making dozens of arrests over the previous four days.

The protesters who gathered in a small square came under tear gas fire after a first police van at the scene was pelted with stones, the journalist says.

Several arrests are made and journalists briefly detained until their credentials had been verified.

— AFP