“Three people were killed and seven others wounded by birdshot and stabbing attacks during clashes between Morsi supporters and his opponents,” Adel Said, a hospital official in the Nile Delta city of Mansura, told AFP.
The three killed Friday were all women, he added.
A pro-Morsi protester injured in the clashes, also speaking by phone, said thousands of loyalists were marching through the city’s narrow streets when “thugs” attacked them with guns, knives and rocks.
Tensions are running high in Egypt more than two weeks after the army ousted the country’s first freely-elected president following massive protests calling for him to go.
Rival protests were staged in several cities on Friday, with tens of thousands rallying in Cairo to demand the Islamist leader’s reinstatement.
Before Friday’s demonstrations, the army warned that it would decisively confront any violent protesters.
“Whoever resorts to violence in Friday’s protests will endanger his life, and will be treated with utmost decisiveness, within legal bounds,” it said.
Morsi’s army-installed successor Adly Mansour vowed to fight for stability against opponents he accused of wanting to plunge the crisis-hit country “into the unknown”.
“We will fight the battle for security to the end. We will preserve the revolution,” he said in a speech broadcast by state television on Thursday.
Several thousand supporters of Morsi’s overthrow by the military descended on Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Friday evening, setting off fireworks and chanting pro-army slogans.
Earlier, a vast crowd gathered at the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque in the capital, where Morsi loyalists have camped out since the military overthrew him on July 3.
About 10,000 protesters then set off in the direction of an elite military compound, the scene of the deadliest violence since Morsi’s overthrow, carrying pictures of the deposed president and chanting slogans.
But they were blocked by soldiers and armoured vehicles.
“I believe Morsi will return as president, God willing. The people will win in the end,” said protester Mohammed, a 45-year-old veterinarian.
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