Doctors at the Qasr el-Aini Hospital said the two people who died had been shot; they said they also treated 35 people for injuries sustained in the clash. Human rights lawyers said 42 protesters were detained and later interrogated on charges of violating the national curfew.

Witnesses said gunfire rang through the streets of downtown Cairo for over 20 minutes early Saturday morning as several thousand riot police, uniformed soldiers and military police officers stormed the square.

“It was raining bullets,” said Houssam, 26, who wandered around the square midday on Saturday looking for friends he had lost track of in the pre-dawn melee. “It was an enormous amount of shooting. I didn’t know what was going on.”