Protesters Attacked With Knives In Cairo
BBC News reports:
Pro-democracy activists in Egypt have been attacked by men in plain clothes, armed with knives, outside the interior ministry in Cairo, reports say.
It is the first such attack since the fall of Hosni Mubarak last month.
Protesters have stormed ministry and secret police offices to obtain documents they say show evidence of repression under the former president.
New PM Essam Sharaf has vowed to reform the security apparatus and has named a cabinet to govern until elections.
'Serving the citizens'
On Sunday, men in plain clothes armed with swords and petrol bombs confronted the pro-democracy activists after soldiers dispersed a Cairo rally they were holding to demand reform of the security services, eyewitnesses say.
"The army started firing in the air to disperse us," Mohammed Fahmy told Reuters news agency.
"We tried to run away but we were met by 200 thugs in plain clothes carrying sharp weapons."
Mr Fahmy put the number of protesters at 2,000.
Dismantling the security apparatus has been one of the key demands of the protest movement, the BBC's Magdi Abdelhadi in Cairo says.
The events of the weekend have been described as the Egyptian storming of the Bastille, he says.
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