Egypt's ruling Muslim Brotherhood deputy leader on Saturday said opponents have taken to violence after proving incapable at politics, a day after vicious clashes outside the Islamists' headquarters. Rashad al-Bayoumi, the Brotherhood's deputy Supreme Guide, said Friday's violence that wounded more than 160 people was "a tragedy." "If it proves anything, it points to a type of vile character. I hold those who called for such protests politically and legally accountable," he told AFP.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Several thousand opponents of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood clashed with supporters of the Islamist group near its headquarters in Cairo on Friday, and at least 40 people were wounded, authorities said. Columns of riot police fired tear gas as the rival groups tussled in the streets around the Brotherhood headquarters. Protesters hurled Molotov cocktails and stones, a witness said.

A group of men stormed a Muslim Brotherhood office in the Egyptian capital on Friday, ransacking it and assaulting some of the group's members, the movement's spokesman told AFP. The attack on the office came as hundreds of protesters clashed with police and Islamists outside their main headquarters in another Cairo neighbourhood. The Islamist group's spokesman Ahmed Aref said the men assaulted women in the office who were holding an event commemorating Mothers' Day, and then forced them into bathrooms before they destroyed the office's contents. se/srm

Egyptian opposition protesters clashed with Islamists on Friday near the Muslim Brotherhood's headquarters after activists marched to the building guarded by police and Brotherhood members. The two sides threw stones at each other near the building. Police who had been deployed outside the headquarters, have not yet intervened, an AFP correspondent said. ht-se/srm