Outrage in Egypt after police officer kills street vendor

CAIRO – Hundreds of Cairo residents are protesting after an Egyptian police officer shot dead a street vendor and injured another one, the latest in a series of incidents that have triggered public outrage over the behavior of the police.

Brig. Gen. Hesham Amer, police chief of the New Cairo district, said on Tuesday that three policemen argued with a street vendor over the price of a cup of tea, then one of them shot two people in the eastern Cairo suburb of Rehab. He said the wounded man was taken to hospital. The policeman was arrested, and referred to the prosecutors, Amer added.

Photos and video clips circulated on social networking sites showing crowds smashing a police vehicle and blocking a road while chanting, "the police are thugs."