Police intervene again at Al-Azhar

Police forces stormed Al-Azhar campus after the university president asked them to intervene to protect lives and property, state news agency MENA reported.

A group of Muslim Brotherhood students allegedly attacked university facilities Monday, causing damage to a number of employees' cars. Security forces dispersed the crowds and controlled the situation, arresting a number of students amid some clashes, according to MENA.

The Interior Ministry issued a statement ordering the intervention of security forces at the request of University President Osama al-Abd to confront "rioting students" who had allegedly attacked public and private property on campus.

The statement added that the students had cut off the road and attacked security forces using Molotov cocktails in front of the university. They then allegedly attacked public and private property inside the university, after security forces had initially dispersed them outside the gates.

According to MENA, a number of students from the Brotherhood set fire to a car belonging to Central Security Forces during the clashes.

The demonstrations occurred simultaneously Monday with the appeal filed by 38 Al-Azhar students regarding 18-month sentences for charges of illegal gathering, rioting, blocking the road and assaulting police in clashes in front of a monument near the university in October 2012.

Al-Azhar University student Aya Fathy and spokesperson of Students Against the Coup told Mada Masr that the students were protesting inside the campus when security forces stormed in, resulting in more than 100 injuries. 

"Dozens have been arrested, but we don’t have a final number of detainees, because they keep on increasing and the clashes are ongoing," she said, adding that police forces stormed classrooms and arrested students from their lessons and laboratories.