A policeman was killed and another wounded on Thursday in clashes with the supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Egyptian Interior Ministry said.
It added in a statement that the supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, the movement from which ousted president Mohamed Morsi hails, used birdshot in wounding the policeman.
The ministry said the supporters of the movement used birdshot, live ammunition and Molotov cocktails in their clashes with policemen and ordinary citizens and also sought to hinder the movement of public transport and block roads.
It noted that policemen arrested 114 of these supporters in a number of provinces, including in the capital Cairo.
"The arrested people had a machine gun, Molotov cocktails and fireworks in their possession as well as incendiary materials," the ministry said in its statement.
It added that bomb disposal experts had defused 24 charges left behind by the supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood in the places where they staged protests.
An alliance backing the ousted president said earlier that six people were killed on Thursday as policemen dispersed rallies marking the first anniversary of the bloody dispersal of two major sit-ins by Morsi's supporters in Cairo and Giza.
One police official, however, quoted by the state-run MENA news agency, accused Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group of "plotting to sabotage and damage public facilities after failing to mobilize for protests."
Thursday's protests came in response to calls by the pro-Morsi National Alliance for an "uprising" against Egypt's military-backed government.
The protests come amid stepped-up deployments by Egyptian security forces on main streets and around vital facilities.
Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood leader who won Egypt's first free presidential election in 2012, was ousted by the military in July of last year following protests against his single year in office.
Former army chief Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, widely seen as the architect of Morsi's ouster and subsequent imprisonment, was declared the winner of presidential polls conducted in May.
By Islam Mosaad
englishnews@aa.com.tr
www.aa.com.tr/en
