20091206

CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian police colonel was shot dead and another officer wounded in a shootout between security forces and fishermen in Cairo during a licensing crackdown, security sources said Sunday.

Security forces scoured Cairo's riverside on Sunday for 28 fishermen wanted for questioning after the shooting on Saturday, which broke out after police demanded to inspect fishing licences, the sources said.

Several officers have died in a series of shootings in recent months between police and marginalised groups of Egyptians, including Bedouin in the Sinai peninsula.

Men trying to steal telephone and power cables shot dead a police officer in Sinai in October. A month earlier, gunmen ambushed and shot dead the head of criminal investigations for Suez in an attack blamed on drug dealers.