Summary An Egyptian man was shot dead in clashes outside the presidential palace in Cairo on Friday
An Egyptian was shot dead as security forces battled petrol-bomb throwing protesters at the presidential palace in Cairo on Friday as President Mohamed Morsi vowed "decisive" police action, a senior medic said.
The 23-year-old died of a gunshot wound, said Ahmed al-Ansari, the deputy head of Egypt s medic authority, as police fired birdshot on the protesters who targeted the palace amid rallies in several cities against the Islamist leader.
Police said they arrested 20 protesters, and were filmed on live television beating and dragging a naked man to an armoured vehicle, outraging Morsi s critics who compared the incident with police practices under deposed leader Hosni Mubarak.
The presidency, facing a flare-up in the political crisis that has dogged Morsi, said security forces would deal with violent protests with "utmost decisiveness" and that it would hold opposition groups found to have incited the clashes "politically accountable."
A statement on Morsi s Facebook page said the protesters sparked the violence by trying to break down the presidential palace gates and scaling its walls.
Ansari said 53 people have been injured in the clashes. The interior ministry said five of its men were wounded by birdshot, and that Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim has ordered a probe to "hold accountable" the policemen who beat the naked protester.
The opposition National Salvation Front, which called for nationwide protests on Friday, distanced itself from the violence outside the palace and urged protesters to exercise "utmost restraint."
But hours before the violence broke out, NSF leader and Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei suggested unrest would persist if Morsi kept on sidelining his opponents.
