Cairo University students clash with police

Cairo University students clashed with police forces on Thursday, the privately owned daily Al-Masry Al-Youm (AMAY) reported.

The Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated students allegedly threw stones at the security forces, who retaliated with water cannons and tear gas to disperse the protest. Several students fainted due to the gas, AMAY reported.

Dozens of engineering students had gathered in front of the Faculty of Science Thursday morning, then marched through the campus holding signs that declared, “Free women are a red line.”

They were protesting against the new protest law, as well as the verdict levied against 21 female protesters in Alexandria on Wednesday. The defendants, seven of whom are minors, were sentenced to serve 11 to 15 years in prison for attempting to form a human chain on the Alexandria Cornice in early November.

The students chanted, "Lock up a student, lock up a hundred, but we will not forget our cause.” Demonstrators also raised the four-finger salute that refers to the deadly dispersal of the sit-in at Rabea al-Adaweya in August, and held pictures of deposed President Mohamed Morsi.

The students have been sitting in for five days in protest against the university administration’s decision to suspend four of their classmates, who were accused of demolishing a wall on the campus.

Omar Saher from the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression told Mada Masr that one engineering student was severely injured in Thursday’s clashes, two students were arrested and a campus security officer was also injured by birdshot.

Abdel Rahman Ragab, a photographer and social media specialist, informed Mada Masr that two other engineering students were injured, as well.

Several other students reported on social media that engineering student Mohamed Reda died late Thursday afternoon after being shot in the neck with birdshot.