Protesters denounce Mubarak, clash with riot police in Egypt.(Front)

By Hamza Hendawi

The Associated Press

CAIRO

Egyptian police fired tear gas and beat protesters to clear thousands of people from a central Cairo square early today after the biggest demonstrations in years against President Hosni Mubarak's authoritarian rule.

At least three people were killed in the nationwide demonstrations, inspired by an uprising in Tunisia, which also demanded a solution to Egypt's grinding poverty and were likely to fuel growing dissent in a presidential election year.

Mobilized largely on the Internet, the waves of protesters filled Cairo's central Tahrir - or Liberation - Square on Tuesday, some hurling rocks and climbing atop armored police trucks.

"Down with Hosni Mubarak, down with the tyrant," chanted the crowds. "We don't want you!" they screamed as thousands of riot police deployed.

As night fell, thousands of demonstrators stood their ground for what they vowed would be an all-night sit-in in Tahrir Square just steps away from parliament and other government buildings.

A large security force moved in around 1 a.m. today, arresting people, chasing others into side-streets and filling the square with clouds of tear gas. Protesters collapsed on the ground with breathing problems amid the heavy volleys of tear gas.

The sound of what appeared to be automatic weapons fire could be heard as riot police and plainclothes officers chased several hundred protesters who scrambled onto the main road along the Nile in downtown Cairo. About 20 officers were seen brutally beating one protester with truncheons.

At one point, the two sides faced off on a bridge across the river, paralyzing traffic. Police fired tear gas, and at one point, protesters mounted a charge and forced officers to retreat. Two protesters with bleeding head wounds were carried off in ambulances.

Discontent with life in Egypt's authoritarian police state has simmered under the surface for years. However, it is Tunisia's popular uprising, which forced that nation's autocratic ruler from power, that appears to have pushed young Egyptians into the streets, many for the first time.

The dead in Tuesday's violence included a policeman who was hit in the head with a rock in Cairo, and two protesters who died in the city of Suez east of Cairo, an Interior Ministry official said.

CAPTION(S):

The Associated Press

Police used water cannons, seen above, and volleys of tear gas during protest demonstrations against President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday in Cairo.