[1]Fresh clashes erupted on Monday in Cairo's Tahrir Square between police and protesters demanding the end of military rule, as the death toll climbed to 33 and the spiralling unrest threatened to overshadow the first polls since Hosni Mubarak's ouster.
CNN has quoted sources from the country's health ministry who claim the number of injured has reached 1,700.
Police and military forces sporadically used batons, tear gas and birdshot to try to clear the central square of thousands of protesters demanding for a third straight day that the ruling military cede power to a civilian authority.
But by mid-morning Monday large crowds were again streaming to Tahrir, the symbolic heart of demonstrations that toppled Mubarak in February, correspondents said.
"War in the Square," read the headline of the state-owned Al-Akhbar, while the liberal Wafd daily said 'Egypt is sitting on a volcano'.
The clashes first erupted on Saturday, a day after large crowds staged a peaceful anti-military mass rally at the square, resuming on Sunday and carrying through the night into Monday morning, witnesses and television footage showed.
Police and troops on Sunday seized the square only to be beaten back by protesters who retook it later, as had also happened on Saturday.
An AFP reporter said late on Sunday that on one street protesters were throwing stones and petrol bombs at military armoured personnel carriers and riot police.
He said military police had responded with mostly shotgun fire and rubber bullets. When there was steady fire some protesters began to run while others chanted "Hold fast! Hold fast!" and "We won't leave!"
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