Egyptian security forces have fired live rounds at anti-government protesters marching in the northern province of Gharbia.


The incident took place during a protest ahead of Friday prayers in the Qotour area of the Nile Delta. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Egypt’s Anti-coup Alliance had called for mass rallies to condemn the interim government’s crackdown on such rallies.

Protesters also expressed outrage over reports that Egypt’s army chief, Field Marshal Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, plans to run for president.

Egypt has been experiencing unrelenting violence since last July when the army ousted the country’s first democratically-elected president, Mohamed Morsi, suspended the constitution, and dissolved the parliament. It also appointed the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court Adly Mahmoud Mansour as the new interim president.

Last December, Egypt’s military-backed interim government labeled the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization.

Thousands of members of the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters have been arrested and accused of inciting unrest in the North African country.

Amnesty International has criticized Egyptian authorities for using an “unprecedented scale” of violence against protesters and dealing “a series of damaging blows to human rights.”

According to the UK-based rights group, 1,400 people have been killed in the political violence since Morsi’s ouster, "most of them due to excessive force used by security forces."