Gunfire has been heard near Cairo's Tahrir (Liberation) Square where pro-democracy protesters are massed despite fierce clashes with loyalists of Hosni Mubarak, the country's embattled president.
Witnesses said that gunshots rang out from a bridge leading to the square, the epicentre of protests against Mubarak for the past 10 days, on Thursday afternoon.
An Al Jazeera correspondent, reporting from the scene, said it was not clear who was behind the firing.
There have been sporadic clashes throughout Thursday, as the army fanned out to separate the two sides and allowed thousands more protesters to enter their camp in the square.
Soldiers then stepped aside as the anti-government side surged ahead in the afternoon in resumed clashes.
With volleys of stones, the protesters pushed back their rivals who had swarmed onto a nearby highway overpass that the supporters of the regime had used as a high ground to pelt them.
At the same time, Mubarak supporters also carried out a string of attacks on journalists around the square.
'Blatant mistake'
A day earlier, Tahrir Square had witnessed fierce clashes, after Mubarak loyalists - some of them riding camels and horses - attacked the pro-democracy protesters.
Ahmed Shafiq, the Egyptian prime minister, made an unprecedented apology on Thursday for Wednesday's assault that turned central Cairo into a battle zone.
Shafiq said the attack on the anti-Mubarak protesters was a "blatant mistake" acknowledging that it was likely organised and promised to investigate who was behind it.
The pro-democracy protesters accuse the regime of organising the assault, using paid thugs and policemen in civilian clothes, in an attempt to crush their movement.
Egypt's state news agency has reported that the prosecutor-general has banned travel and frozen the bank accounts of three former ministers of the government that was sacked over the weekend, including the interior minister who was responsible for police.
The prosecutor-general said he ordered the same restrictions against a senior ruling party official until security is restored in the country.
