CAIRO: Dozens of people were injured in clashes Tuesday in the western city of Mersa Matrouh as residents tried to storm a police station to free relatives convicted of smuggling, an Egyptian security official said.
A court in the coastal city sentenced the defendants to six months in jail for smuggling foreign cigarettes into the country prompting their families -- armed with automatic weapons, guns and knives --- to storm the station where their papers were being processed, the official said.
Clashes erupted between police and the families, leaving 46 people injured, health ministry spokesman Ahmed Omar said, quoted by the official MENA news agency. The injured have all been taken to hospital.
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