Military police in riot gear fired tear gas at demonstrators in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Sunday and some of them threw stones, supporting police who had earlier tried to disperse a protest in the square without success, television images showed. Protests fled from the army police lines, many into side streets.
More than a dozen armored personnel carriers also took up positions around Egypt's Interior Ministry, a focus for protester anger at heavy-handed police tactics used to try to break up a demonstration in central Cairo, a witness said.
Egypt's ruling military council and the army-picked cabinet held an urgent meeting on Sunday after protesters and police clashed in Cairo and other cities, state media reported.
There were no immediate details about the discussions. Germany's foreign minister Sunday appealed for calm in Egypt, saying the violent clashes in the country were of "great concern" and threatened to derail the progress made towards democracy.
"The latest news from Cairo and Alexandria has filled me with great concern. I call on all sides to refrain from any violence," said Guido Westerwelle, in a statement issued on Sunday.
"The Egyptian people have in recent months continuously pressed for democratic progress in their country.
At least two people were killed in fresh violence in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Sunday when police backed by the army charged protesters to disperse a demonstration against military rule, medical sources said.
A Reuters cameraman had seen a body of one man, identified by activists as Shehab el-Diun el-Dakroubi, 28, on Sunday evening in a makeshift clinic next to Tahrir Square.
The cause of Dakroubi's death was not immediately clear nor was it clear if he was one of the two cited by the sources.
Two people had been killed in earlier violence that began on Saturday in Cairo and Alexandria, according to state media citing the Health Ministry.
The health ministry in Egypt said 750 people were injured in the clashes in Cairo's Tahrir Square, while demonstrations also spread to the cities of Alexandria, Aswan and Suez. About 40 policemen were among those injured, the interior ministry said.