CAIRO: Police fired tear-gas at about 2,000 rioters in the southern Egyptian town of Aswan on Sunday as they protested the police shooting to death of a bird-seller, a security official said.
Police with the anti-drug squad had mistaken the man, Abdel Wahab Abdel Razeq, for a drug dealer.
They were going to arrest a drug dealer. They went into the wrong apartment, the official said.
Egypt s official MENA news agency reported that the man had opened fire on police before being shot, although this was not possible to confirm.
On hearing of Abdel Razeq s death, the protesters surrounded the hospital where his body was taken and pelted it with stones, smashing windows.
Riot police clashed with the demonstrators, firing tear-gas to disperse them, leaving one man dead, security officials and medical sources said on Monday.
Yehia El-Maghrabi, 59, died in hospital after inhaling tear gas that police fired at around 2,000 protesters.
MENA reported that an Aswan prosecutor has summoned the policemen for questioning. -AFP
