Nine people were hurt when gunmen fired at protesters camping in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Tuesday, according to witnesses and Egyptian media, as opponents and supporters of President Mohamed Morsi's plans for a referendum on a new constitution geared up for a day of street demonstrations.
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Police cars surrounded the square, the first time they had appeared in the area since Nov. 23, shortly after a decree by the president awarding himself sweeping temporary powers that touched off widespread protests.
The upheaval in the most populous Arab nation following the fall of Hosni Mubarak last year is causing concern in the West, in particular the United States, which has given Cairo billions of dollars in military and other aid since Egypt made peace with Israel in 1979.
The attackers, some masked, also threw petrol bombs which started a small fire, witnesses said.
Many of the protesters, awakened by the noise, chanted: "The people want the downfall of the regime" - one of the main slogans of the uprising that toppled Mubarak and now adopted by Morsi's opponents. Recorded recitations of the Koran were played over speakers in the square.
"The masked men came suddenly and attacked the protesters in Tahrir. The attack was meant to deter us and prevent us from protesting today. We oppose these terror tactics and will stage the biggest protest possible today," said John Gerges, a Christian Egyptian who described himself as a socialist.
Leftists, liberals and other opposition groups have called for marches to the presidential palace in the afternoon to protest against the hastily arranged referendum on a new constitution planned for Saturday, which they say is polarising the country and could put it in a religious straightjacket.
Conservatives, who dominated the body that drew up the constitution, have urged their followers to turn out "in millions" the same day in a show of support for the president and for a referendum they feel sure of winning.
Seven people were killed and hundreds wounded last week in clashes between the Muslim Brotherhood and opponents besieging Morsi's graffiti-daubed presidential palace.
The elite Republican Guard which protects the palace has yet to use force to keep protesters away from the building, now ringed with tanks, barbed wire and concrete barricades. A decree issued by Morsi late on Sunday gives the armed forces the power to arrest civilians during the referendum.
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