Egyptian police on strike

• Tweet

CAIRO, March 8 (UPI) -- More than 30 police stations were closed across Egypt to protest the way the Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim operates, a ministry statement said.

The statement said police stations in Cairo, Giza, Ismailia, Port Said, Minya, Sohag, Daqahlia, Gharbiya, Sharqiya and Alexandria were closed Thursday and many Central Security Forces departments were on strike nationwide, Ahram Online reported.

Police officers want the ministry to properly outfit them for riot situations, and they seek Ibrahim's dismissal.

Security leaders were reviewing the officers' demands and trying to convince them to return to their jobs, a source said in a report from Egypt's Middle East News Agency.

The first of the Central Security Forces protests began Tuesday in Mansoura, then spread to Suez Canal cities.

In the Suez city of Port Said Thursday, clashes between security forces and demonstrators left 35 people injured, including two who were struck by live rounds of ammunition, al-Masry al-Youm reported.

Health Ministry Undersecretary Helmy al-Afny said 13 people were wounded by birdshot and 20 suffered from inhaling tear gas.

The violence started Sunday against an Interior Ministry decision to transfer 39 prisoners from the Suez Canal city elsewhere, and against death sentences for 21 people in a case arising from a soccer stadium riot that killed 72 people in February 2012.