22 dead in Egypt clashes: health ministry

CAIRO: Egypt's health ministry said Monday that the death toll from clashes between protesters and police around the country over the last three days has climbed to 22.

"The deaths in Tahrir Square and several provinces has reached 22," since clashes broke out on Saturday, the health ministry said in a statement carried by the official MENA news agency.

Hundreds have also been injured during the protests that broke out in Cairo, Alexandria and the canal city of Suez.

Police have been locked in violent confrontations with protesters demanding the end of military rule, with numbers mid-morning beginning to swell in Tahrir -- the symbolic heart of demonstrations that toppled Hosni Mubarak in February.