Causalities Mount in Egypt, let us be in prayer

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More than 100 people have been killed and 1,500 injured at a protest held by supporters of ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi in Cairo, doctors say.

However the health ministry has put the death toll lower, at 38.

The army ousted Mr Morsi on 3 July. He has been formally accused of murder, relating to a 2011 jail outbreak, and of links to the militant group Hamas.

Both pro- and anti-Morsi demonstrators held huge protests overnight in the capital.

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At the scene

image of Quentin SommervilleQuentin SommervilleBBC News, Cairo

There were pools of blood all over the field hospital. Many of the injured were in bad shape. Some had parts of their head missing – taken out by bullets.

The battle raged last night and all morning. We heard automatic gunfire. Protesters formed a human shield around us as shotguns and CS gas were fired towards us. There was the sound of outgoing shots too. The air was thick with tear gas and people were vomiting.

There was a child, maybe 12, covered in blood. He was deathly white. They closed the doors at the hospital as they could not accept more wounded, but the ambulances were still arriving.

As we left, a child was dragged from a car by the Morsi supporters outside the mosque. He was given a very serious beating.

The anti-Morsi camp occupied Cairo’s Tahrir Square in support of the army, after its chief, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, had urged people to demonstrate to provide a mandate for its intervention.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Morsi supporters continued their sit-in protest at the mosque in the Nasr City area.