Calls for Morsi's release grow amid fresh clashes in Cairo

CAIRO // At least six people were killed in Cairo today in violence between supporters and opponents of deposed President Mohammed Morsi, state-run media reported.

The violence broke out before dawn near a Brotherhood protest at Cairo University, where Morsi supporters have been camped out since the army removed the Islamist politician from power on July 3 following protests against his rule.

The Brotherhood described it as an attack on peaceful protesters. Police sources said hundreds of Mursi supporters clashed with local residents, street vendors and others near the sit-in. They said gunshots were fired and stones were thrown.

The state-run Al Ahram newspaper quoted a health ministry official as saying six people had been killed and a further 33 people were injured. It brings the number of people killed in political violence to nine in the last two days.

About 100 people have died in violence since the army deposed Morsi and replaced him with an interim administration led by the Adly Al Mansour, the head of the constitutional court. The Brotherhood accuses the army of orchestrating a coup.

Morsi's family told a news conference yesterday they will take legal action against the military for having "kidnapped" the elected president after he was deposed in a military-led coup on July 3.

Egypt's new leadership says Morsi is in a "safe" place for his own good.

Calls for Morsi to be released have also been issued by the United States, Germany, the United Nations and the European Union which, on Monday, again called for the Islamist leader to be freed.

The Brotherhood said on its website a total of seven "martyrs" had been killed overnight in two separate attacks on Mursi supporters, one at Cairo University and another on a march near a bigger sit-in in the north of the city.

The Brotherhood said it will maintain the sit-in until Mursi, held by the army in an unknown location since his overthrow, is reinstated.

"Leaders of the military coup continue to terrorize the peaceful protesters in Egypt," the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party said in a statement.

Some residents close to the Brotherhood's main protest area in Nasr City have filed a complaint with the public prosecutor asking for the removal of the protesters. A security source said the case is expected to be taken to a court and ruled upon soon "to give the army a legal basis to end the protests".

The National Salvation Front, an alliance of liberal and leftist parties that supported Morsi's removal from power, condemned what it described as attacks by Brotherhood supporters on protesters over the last three weeks.