Five dead on Egypt crackdown anniversary

At least five people have been killed in sporadic violence in Egypt after Islamists called protests to mark the first anniversary of a police crackdown that cost the lives of hundreds of demonstrators.

On August 14, 2013, after then army chief and now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi had removed Egypt's first freely elected president, Mohamed Morsi, police set upon thousands of Morsi supporters at protest camps in Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya and Nahda squares, leaving hundreds of people dead.

The assault was "one of the largest killings of demonstrators in a single day in recent history", the New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a report released ahead of Thursday's anniversary.

In Rabaa al-Adawiya at least 817 people were killed, HRW said, calling for investigations into likely "crimes against humanity".

Official estimates say more than 700 people were killed at the two squares on that day.

On Thursday, attempts by Morsi supporters to demonstrate were swiftly suppressed, reflecting their dwindling ability to stage protests amid violent repression that has left more than 1400 people dead since Morsi's overthrow in July 2013.

The pro-Morsi Anti-Coup Alliance had called for nationwide rallies under the slogan "We Demand Retribution".

Four people were killed by gunshots across Cairo when Morsi supporters clashed with riot police and civilian opponents, a security official said.

Earlier, a policeman was gunned down in a southern Cairo suburb by unknown assailants. The interior ministry blamed Morsi supporters for his death.

Police fired tear gas during clashes with pro-Morsi demonstrators in three neighbourhoods of the Mediterranean city of Alexandria and in the town of Kerdasa, southwest of Cairo.

Similar trouble was reported in the Nile Delta province of Sharqiya.

At least 14 people were wounded and around 70 arrested nationwide, security officials and state news agency MENA said.