CAIRO, April 9: Two people were killed on Saturday when troops and police stormed Cairo's Tahrir Square to break up a demonstration demanding the ouster of the country's de facto military ruler, doctors said.

For its part, the health ministry put the official toll at one dead and 71 injured, some from bullet wounds and others suffering breathing difficulties or having been struck during clashes.

The medics, who said 18 people were also wounded, did not say whether the deaths were caused by live rounds. If confirmed, these would be the first deaths in the square since it became the focal point for 18 days of protests that triggered president Hosni Mubarak's resignation on February 11.

On Friday, tens of thousands had massed in the square calling for Mr Mubarak and his cronies to be tried for corruption and criticising the military rulers for stalling on reforms in what was dubbed the “Day of Trial and Cleansing”.

Some were also demanding that 75-year-old Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi, Mr Mubarak's defence minister for two decades and the man who replaced him, also step down.

Several hundred camped out in the square overnight, and witnesses said soldiers, backed by riot police, fired live rounds, mostly into the air, and beat protesters.

The interim military government said “elements from the interior ministry”, backed by civilians, had cleared the “outlaws” from the square, in a statement carried by the official MENA news agency.

A statement on the military's Facebook page blamed remnants of the formerly ruling National Democratic Party for the demonstration, and said it had ordered the arrest of four party members. Cairo remains under a 2am to 5am curfew.

An officer said “we did not fire live bullets”, adding that an inquiry was under way. Earlier, an official said the army had used only blanks.

Seven army officers had defied a warning from the ruling military council and joined the protesters on Friday, calling for a “purification” of the army. “Our demands are your demands. We want a civilian government. We want to try corrupt people,” one officer said to loud cheers.

At midnight on Friday, the officers gathered in a tent surrounded by more than a dozen protesters who wanted to guard them against arrest.

The army withdrew from the square in the morning, prompting the swift return of at least 200 protesters. By the afternoon that figure had swelled to around a thousand.

A military bus was still in flames, and stones and bullet casings littered the ground from the overnight violence.

The protesters were calling for Tantawi's ouster and said they would remain in the square until he quit. The demonstrators cordoned off entrances to the square with barbed wire abandoned by military police. The mood was tense and decidedly anti-military.

Some protesters surrounded a man who objected to their presence, pummelling him with punches and kicks before other demonstrators intervened. “I've come to Tahrir Square because we are witnessing a counter-revolution,” student Malik Asam said.

Another student, Anas Mohammed, said: “I had expected to see the other face of the military, but if they carry on as they are, they will see the other face of the people.”

That was an apparent reference to the army's stance during the anti-Mubarak protests, when it said the demonstrators' demands were just and protected them from anti-regime elements who tried to drive them out of the square.

Mr Mubarak, his wife Suzanne and their two sons Alaa and Gamal and their wives have already been banned from travel and had their assets frozen.—AFP